Lester Holt obviously wants Biden to withdraw from the race, and he obviously blames Democratic rhetoric for the assassination attempt on Trump.
I do not pretend to be shocked and horrified by the attempt on Trump's life. In fact, I wonder why it took so long to happen. One lunatic shoots at another, and a man lost his life, and two others were seriously hurt, because the grifter Trump held a rally that day, in that town.
The Democratic party's rhetoric has been civilized but also accurate as it pertains o the danger Trump and MAGA represent, but the chilling effect of people not speaking out for fear of "inciting violence" is a serious problem. I'm not going to engage in it. Trump's big ugly mouth, his extreme rhetoric, and Jan 6 tell me he brought violence on himself, but more tragically, on people unfortunate enough to support him and his lies. It broke my heart when the dead man's widow refused to take a phone call from Joe Biden. If that doesn't illustrate the effects of cult politics, I don't know what does.
Americans are almost desperate for unity, making any calls for it well-received, even if disingenuous. Let's imagine a genuine offer of unity by Trump: after stating that the border is in crisis and cannot wait for the election, Trump reaches out to Biden. Unity could involve Trump reversing course and ‘freeing the US House’ to consider (or adopt) the Senate bill on immigration. In the spirit of unity, Trump will most likely also insist that prosecutors drop all litigation against him. That is what Trump will declare tonight. Unfortunately, anti-Trump folks might be caught flat-footed. If they were good at chess, they would challenge Trump today with examples of unifying policies he should address.
I'm mystified as to why you think the orange felon would address any unifying policies or ideas, or that he might ever "reach out" to President Biden to make something positive happen. The last thing he wants is to give Democrats any successes to campaign on.
If you expect to hear a proposal from him for bipartisan legislation, you will be sorely disappointed. Though I agree he'll demand that all charges for his crimes be dropped, because he's special and not subject to any laws, rules, protocols, or guardrails.
Thanks Randy. I tried to convey one almost fantasy, which word Dan used. Realitically, I predicted earlier this week that Trump will define unity as 'having all charges dropped." I did not realize Trump has already tweeted this. And where are the anti Trump messages? Where are the examples of unity that we ask for (knowing full well Trump will not do this)--so what. People are hungry with calls for unity. Trump once again preempted any Biden Team or DNC response.
Well, she probably thought that Biden was the one that tried to have Trump shot.
It seems plausible. The Secret Service detail was kept deliberately short staffed. There was definitely shortcomings in the protection of the area where Trump was speaking.
The Biden Neo Cons do not want Trump back in the Whitehouse. This was a logical development.
I don’t think you grasp what's happening. The two parties are switching ideologies. The DNC want endless wars, CBDCs and digital IDs for complete censorship and control of all assets of all citizens. The RNC has become the party of the workers, don’t want wars (they would rather do business with foreign countries), don't want censorship or CBDCs or digital IDs. O.K., now which do you prefer?
I think you have no idea what you are talking about. Democrats do not want wars; that's the Military-Industrial Complex, which both parties are happy to feed. No idea what a "CBDC" is and no interest in looking it up. Digital ID / voter ID is a completely Republican effort to monitor and control citizens, not a Democratic one.
Meanwhile, how can a party that is all-in on union-busting and "right to work" laws be "the party of workers"? The Teamsters president got big backlash from MAGA attendees after he bashed big business and corporate greed in his speech at the convention. And the GOP platform still calls for cutting taxes on the wealthy while also raising taxes on everyone else in the form of massive tariffs.
If you agree with her, then you agree with stupid comments that bring nothing to the debate. You, however, do debate like a thinking person. But I really don't think you've paid attention to what's happening with the DNC (always loves war) and Trump who does not like war; he'd prefer to do business with foreign countries, as I've said. You also haven't considered the entry of J.D.Vance as the Veep candidate who is completely pro-middle class and pro-union, pro-working folks. CBDC: Central Bank Digital Currency (no more paper and coin money) and digital ID go together, the combination of which would give the DEMs the ability to freeze your assets if you try to spend money on something of which they disapprove; complete censorship ("for the good of the children" hahaha) on anything you speak or write. This is all part of the Democrats platform. The RNC platform rightly denounces all these distraction of our freedoms. Do you really want the First Amendment gone? They will have algorithms to spot certain words that will get a person band from a site or email or wherever you write something, For example, I'm pro-Palestinian and that's a no-no to the censors. If I want to contribute to reporters I like such as Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Norman Finkelstein, my fund for that will be frozen. Those reporters themselves will be cut off completely. Trump and J.D. Vance hate all these things and so do I. Yes, the parties are switching places ideologically. Digital IDs will me.an you can't go in a building, board an airplane or train, or even eat out without you being identified. That dystopian, Orwell-predicted world would be awful. You would hate it, too
OK, thanks for detailing your thoughts. I agree that there are many major concerns about the "CBDC" idea pushed by Chuck Schumer and a load of Republicans (who love it), but Biden and Warren among others are against it. Not sure how much of a deal we can make of that at the moment. Seems like there are bigger issues.
I'm concerned, though, that you have a weirdly mistaken impression that any Democrat wants to track anyone else's speech, habits, or anything else. We are among the foremost advocates for digital privacy laws. Liberals are about welcoming all kinds of people and letting them live their lives as they see fit, as long as it's within the law and bounds of society. We are not interested in snooping.
Any time the GOP mentions freedom of speech, it's to get the freedom to attack their perceived enemies, and every chance they get they suppress the speech of gay, Black, liberal, and female advocates. No one is coming for your donations, either.
PS I can't board an airplane without being identified. It's kinda the law passed by a panicked Congress in the wake of 9/11, along with a lot of other transgressions on our privacy and liberties far more egregious.
P.P.S. If businesses are prevented from trading in cash, that will indeed be a dystopian Orwell fantasy. But liberals do NOT want such a society. The only forces who are going to use data for evil are the ones behind the orange felon and his mini-me VP pick.
The DNC DO want to monitor all you say and do. Mark Zukerberg just announced he will follow the IHRA's advice and censorship ANY criticism of Zionism and Israel because it's considered anti-semitic (which it isn't) on all his platforms. The DNC approves of this. We also won't be able to say anything that's not the government approved narrative such as discouraging people from getting those dangerous Covid shots. That's an opinion that will not be tolerated. You remember what Edward Snowden said the government wants to do: "Collect it all. Everything." Why is nearly ALL our Congress voting to send billions of our dollars to two foreign countries instead of giving healthcare to all OUR citizens? Why should Israel get billions of our dollars when they are carrying on a genocide right in front of us. If I say that's terrible on social media, I will be censored. Why is it that the DNC insists on war at ALL TIMES? Yes, lots of RNC like war profits, too, but Trump does not. I don't care much for Trump, but illegal wars are a big deal to me and ALL our wars since WWII have been ILLEGAL, just as the occupation of Palestine is illegal. What to the JEWs have that makes the US lick Israel's boots? Oh, yes they own our Congress where each congressperson has his or her own special AIPAC individual lobbysist in their ear telling them how to vote...or else! The US and Israel are the two most feared and hated countries. You can see why. Right now the NED phonies are in Venezuela in the streets cajoling the people not to reelect Maduro. What right does our government have to interfere in every other nation's elections?. Russia and China, our supposed "enemies," don't do that no matter what lies you hear. I hate this country myself and very soon I will not be able to say that if the Dems have their way with censorship. Remember Trump got censored....and hated it. He also know better than to give a Dem administration control over his funds because they will freeze. Just last week the US stole three millions dollars from Russia. A while back, they froze Iran's assets. NOT good. Thank god the BRICS are not using the US $dollar any more.
The DNC has zero power over us, social media, or much of anything.
Private corporations deciding which posts violate their proprietary policies are not engaging in government "censorship." As you can see by the Untruth Social example, you can set up your own social medium and run it as you like. (You can also see by how Musk runs X.)
There's a lot of chaff in your post I'm deliberately ignoring.
Russia DID interfere in 2016 AND 2020, as documented by not only our intelligence agencies but allies as well, and we know that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey all have active troll farms trying their old tricks.
Three million dollars would not pay for one cruise missile aimed at Ukraine by the Russians. If we "stole" that money from them, that's $3 million they won't have to spend on killing school children.
Republicans have become the party of TALKING ABOUT workers, not about enacting legislation or taking other steps that actually help them, son. Take it from an old political reporter (and Republican for almost 40 years): Watch what they DO, not what they say. And nothing in the past 60 years of GOP history suggests they're going to do anything meaningful for workers.
I take your point and realize that if Trump's elected, he's not going to care about people like he says, but if the DEMs are so worker-oriented, why did Biden shut down the train workers' strike? I realize the Repubs want to take every cent they can from ordinary people, but Trump himself doesn't want to murder millions of people in countries that were/are never going to attack us and never have been a threat. That's called propaganda. I care as much about those foreigners as I do Americans.
He shut down the train workers' strike because letting the strike continue any length of time would have thrown the country into a recession. I don't agree with what he did, but I certainly understand why he did it.
As for your assertion that "Trump himself doesn't want to murder millions of people in countries that were/are never going to attack us and never have been a threat," have you LISTENED to the man? If you want to quibble over numbers, that's one thing, but he would be perfectly happy to let Bibi keep pursuing his genocidal policies in Gaza. On a global level, he wants to ally himself with Putin, who has carried out genocide in Ukraine and certainly would do so elsewhere if he thought he could do it without prompting a military attack by NATO. You can dismiss what he says as "propaganda" if you like, but the rest of us are going to take him at his word, considering how often he has followed through on his pronounced plans before, or at least tried.
"Biden and the Democratic Party are responsible for this zeitgeist. They orchestrated the deindustrialization of the United States, ensuring that 30 million workers lost their jobs in mass layoffs. As I write in America, The Farewell Tour, this assault on the working class created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. Trumpeted by a compliant media, this paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime and law and order. Biden was at the epicenter of this paradigm shift. Those undergoing profound economic and political change were told that their suffering stemmed not from rampant militarism and corporate greed but from a threat to national integrity. The old consensus that buttressed New Deal programs and the welfare state was attacked as enabling criminal Black youth, “welfare queens” and other alleged social parasites. This opened the door to a faux populism, begun by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, which supposedly championed family values, traditional morality, individual autonomy, law and order, the Christian faith and the return to a mythical past, at least for white Americans. The Democratic Party, especially under Bill Clinton and Biden, became largely indistinguishable from the establishment Republican Party to which it is now allied.
The Democratic Party refuses to accept its responsibility for the capture of democratic institutions by a rapacious oligarchy, the grotesque social inequality, the cruelty of predatory corporations and an unchecked militarism. The Democrats will anoint another amoral politician, probably Harris, to use as a mask for outsized corporate greed, the folly of endless war, the facilitation of genocide and the assault on our most basic civil liberties." I'm also done with this conversation. Appreciate what you both have clearly stated. Bye for now. Rob
Here's hoping the stuff you're going through is soon happily resolved. The blogosphere needs you, Dan!
Lester Holt obviously wants Biden to withdraw from the race, and he obviously blames Democratic rhetoric for the assassination attempt on Trump.
I do not pretend to be shocked and horrified by the attempt on Trump's life. In fact, I wonder why it took so long to happen. One lunatic shoots at another, and a man lost his life, and two others were seriously hurt, because the grifter Trump held a rally that day, in that town.
The Democratic party's rhetoric has been civilized but also accurate as it pertains o the danger Trump and MAGA represent, but the chilling effect of people not speaking out for fear of "inciting violence" is a serious problem. I'm not going to engage in it. Trump's big ugly mouth, his extreme rhetoric, and Jan 6 tell me he brought violence on himself, but more tragically, on people unfortunate enough to support him and his lies. It broke my heart when the dead man's widow refused to take a phone call from Joe Biden. If that doesn't illustrate the effects of cult politics, I don't know what does.
Speaking of Trump the grifter here is a headline at the Guardian:
“ Donald Trump offers supporters $299 assassination attempt-themed sneakers
High-tops emblazoned with candidate’s bloodied face and ‘Fight Fight Fight’ offered for sale before webpage disappears”
Unbelievable . . . or perhaps not.
The epitome of tastelessness:
https://www.gq.com/story/donald-trump-fight-fight-fight-sneakers
I'm not surprised. And to think the widow of the man who was killed refused to take Joe Biden's phone call.
Hope you're doing well.
Hope your “stuff” is going better.
Dan, whatever's going on in your life, I hope that it quickly gets fixed to your satisfaction.
Only ‘unity’ R’s want is behind TFG-nationally.
H Rap Brown:
"Violence is as American as cherry pie".
And nothing has changed for the better in the ca. 60 yrs since Brown's aphorism.
Americans are almost desperate for unity, making any calls for it well-received, even if disingenuous. Let's imagine a genuine offer of unity by Trump: after stating that the border is in crisis and cannot wait for the election, Trump reaches out to Biden. Unity could involve Trump reversing course and ‘freeing the US House’ to consider (or adopt) the Senate bill on immigration. In the spirit of unity, Trump will most likely also insist that prosecutors drop all litigation against him. That is what Trump will declare tonight. Unfortunately, anti-Trump folks might be caught flat-footed. If they were good at chess, they would challenge Trump today with examples of unifying policies he should address.
I'm mystified as to why you think the orange felon would address any unifying policies or ideas, or that he might ever "reach out" to President Biden to make something positive happen. The last thing he wants is to give Democrats any successes to campaign on.
If you expect to hear a proposal from him for bipartisan legislation, you will be sorely disappointed. Though I agree he'll demand that all charges for his crimes be dropped, because he's special and not subject to any laws, rules, protocols, or guardrails.
Thanks Randy. I tried to convey one almost fantasy, which word Dan used. Realitically, I predicted earlier this week that Trump will define unity as 'having all charges dropped." I did not realize Trump has already tweeted this. And where are the anti Trump messages? Where are the examples of unity that we ask for (knowing full well Trump will not do this)--so what. People are hungry with calls for unity. Trump once again preempted any Biden Team or DNC response.
Well, she probably thought that Biden was the one that tried to have Trump shot.
It seems plausible. The Secret Service detail was kept deliberately short staffed. There was definitely shortcomings in the protection of the area where Trump was speaking.
The Biden Neo Cons do not want Trump back in the Whitehouse. This was a logical development.
I don’t think you grasp what's happening. The two parties are switching ideologies. The DNC want endless wars, CBDCs and digital IDs for complete censorship and control of all assets of all citizens. The RNC has become the party of the workers, don’t want wars (they would rather do business with foreign countries), don't want censorship or CBDCs or digital IDs. O.K., now which do you prefer?
Smoke some more of that shit. You might just sleep through more of reality.
I think you have no idea what you are talking about. Democrats do not want wars; that's the Military-Industrial Complex, which both parties are happy to feed. No idea what a "CBDC" is and no interest in looking it up. Digital ID / voter ID is a completely Republican effort to monitor and control citizens, not a Democratic one.
Meanwhile, how can a party that is all-in on union-busting and "right to work" laws be "the party of workers"? The Teamsters president got big backlash from MAGA attendees after he bashed big business and corporate greed in his speech at the convention. And the GOP platform still calls for cutting taxes on the wealthy while also raising taxes on everyone else in the form of massive tariffs.
Seriously, I'm with Marycat2021 on this one.
If you agree with her, then you agree with stupid comments that bring nothing to the debate. You, however, do debate like a thinking person. But I really don't think you've paid attention to what's happening with the DNC (always loves war) and Trump who does not like war; he'd prefer to do business with foreign countries, as I've said. You also haven't considered the entry of J.D.Vance as the Veep candidate who is completely pro-middle class and pro-union, pro-working folks. CBDC: Central Bank Digital Currency (no more paper and coin money) and digital ID go together, the combination of which would give the DEMs the ability to freeze your assets if you try to spend money on something of which they disapprove; complete censorship ("for the good of the children" hahaha) on anything you speak or write. This is all part of the Democrats platform. The RNC platform rightly denounces all these distraction of our freedoms. Do you really want the First Amendment gone? They will have algorithms to spot certain words that will get a person band from a site or email or wherever you write something, For example, I'm pro-Palestinian and that's a no-no to the censors. If I want to contribute to reporters I like such as Glenn Greenwald, Aaron Mate, Norman Finkelstein, my fund for that will be frozen. Those reporters themselves will be cut off completely. Trump and J.D. Vance hate all these things and so do I. Yes, the parties are switching places ideologically. Digital IDs will me.an you can't go in a building, board an airplane or train, or even eat out without you being identified. That dystopian, Orwell-predicted world would be awful. You would hate it, too
OK, thanks for detailing your thoughts. I agree that there are many major concerns about the "CBDC" idea pushed by Chuck Schumer and a load of Republicans (who love it), but Biden and Warren among others are against it. Not sure how much of a deal we can make of that at the moment. Seems like there are bigger issues.
I'm concerned, though, that you have a weirdly mistaken impression that any Democrat wants to track anyone else's speech, habits, or anything else. We are among the foremost advocates for digital privacy laws. Liberals are about welcoming all kinds of people and letting them live their lives as they see fit, as long as it's within the law and bounds of society. We are not interested in snooping.
Any time the GOP mentions freedom of speech, it's to get the freedom to attack their perceived enemies, and every chance they get they suppress the speech of gay, Black, liberal, and female advocates. No one is coming for your donations, either.
PS I can't board an airplane without being identified. It's kinda the law passed by a panicked Congress in the wake of 9/11, along with a lot of other transgressions on our privacy and liberties far more egregious.
P.P.S. If businesses are prevented from trading in cash, that will indeed be a dystopian Orwell fantasy. But liberals do NOT want such a society. The only forces who are going to use data for evil are the ones behind the orange felon and his mini-me VP pick.
The DNC DO want to monitor all you say and do. Mark Zukerberg just announced he will follow the IHRA's advice and censorship ANY criticism of Zionism and Israel because it's considered anti-semitic (which it isn't) on all his platforms. The DNC approves of this. We also won't be able to say anything that's not the government approved narrative such as discouraging people from getting those dangerous Covid shots. That's an opinion that will not be tolerated. You remember what Edward Snowden said the government wants to do: "Collect it all. Everything." Why is nearly ALL our Congress voting to send billions of our dollars to two foreign countries instead of giving healthcare to all OUR citizens? Why should Israel get billions of our dollars when they are carrying on a genocide right in front of us. If I say that's terrible on social media, I will be censored. Why is it that the DNC insists on war at ALL TIMES? Yes, lots of RNC like war profits, too, but Trump does not. I don't care much for Trump, but illegal wars are a big deal to me and ALL our wars since WWII have been ILLEGAL, just as the occupation of Palestine is illegal. What to the JEWs have that makes the US lick Israel's boots? Oh, yes they own our Congress where each congressperson has his or her own special AIPAC individual lobbysist in their ear telling them how to vote...or else! The US and Israel are the two most feared and hated countries. You can see why. Right now the NED phonies are in Venezuela in the streets cajoling the people not to reelect Maduro. What right does our government have to interfere in every other nation's elections?. Russia and China, our supposed "enemies," don't do that no matter what lies you hear. I hate this country myself and very soon I will not be able to say that if the Dems have their way with censorship. Remember Trump got censored....and hated it. He also know better than to give a Dem administration control over his funds because they will freeze. Just last week the US stole three millions dollars from Russia. A while back, they froze Iran's assets. NOT good. Thank god the BRICS are not using the US $dollar any more.
Wow.
We are in zero wars.
The DNC has zero power over us, social media, or much of anything.
Private corporations deciding which posts violate their proprietary policies are not engaging in government "censorship." As you can see by the Untruth Social example, you can set up your own social medium and run it as you like. (You can also see by how Musk runs X.)
There's a lot of chaff in your post I'm deliberately ignoring.
Russia DID interfere in 2016 AND 2020, as documented by not only our intelligence agencies but allies as well, and we know that China, Saudi Arabia, Iran, and Turkey all have active troll farms trying their old tricks.
Three million dollars would not pay for one cruise missile aimed at Ukraine by the Russians. If we "stole" that money from them, that's $3 million they won't have to spend on killing school children.
Republicans have become the party of TALKING ABOUT workers, not about enacting legislation or taking other steps that actually help them, son. Take it from an old political reporter (and Republican for almost 40 years): Watch what they DO, not what they say. And nothing in the past 60 years of GOP history suggests they're going to do anything meaningful for workers.
I take your point and realize that if Trump's elected, he's not going to care about people like he says, but if the DEMs are so worker-oriented, why did Biden shut down the train workers' strike? I realize the Repubs want to take every cent they can from ordinary people, but Trump himself doesn't want to murder millions of people in countries that were/are never going to attack us and never have been a threat. That's called propaganda. I care as much about those foreigners as I do Americans.
He shut down the train workers' strike because letting the strike continue any length of time would have thrown the country into a recession. I don't agree with what he did, but I certainly understand why he did it.
As for your assertion that "Trump himself doesn't want to murder millions of people in countries that were/are never going to attack us and never have been a threat," have you LISTENED to the man? If you want to quibble over numbers, that's one thing, but he would be perfectly happy to let Bibi keep pursuing his genocidal policies in Gaza. On a global level, he wants to ally himself with Putin, who has carried out genocide in Ukraine and certainly would do so elsewhere if he thought he could do it without prompting a military attack by NATO. You can dismiss what he says as "propaganda" if you like, but the rest of us are going to take him at his word, considering how often he has followed through on his pronounced plans before, or at least tried.
Randy and Lex,
I'll let Chris Hedges say it better than I.
"Biden and the Democratic Party are responsible for this zeitgeist. They orchestrated the deindustrialization of the United States, ensuring that 30 million workers lost their jobs in mass layoffs. As I write in America, The Farewell Tour, this assault on the working class created a crisis that forced the ruling elites to devise a new political paradigm. Trumpeted by a compliant media, this paradigm shifted its focus from the common good to race, crime and law and order. Biden was at the epicenter of this paradigm shift. Those undergoing profound economic and political change were told that their suffering stemmed not from rampant militarism and corporate greed but from a threat to national integrity. The old consensus that buttressed New Deal programs and the welfare state was attacked as enabling criminal Black youth, “welfare queens” and other alleged social parasites. This opened the door to a faux populism, begun by Ronald Reagan and Margaret Thatcher, which supposedly championed family values, traditional morality, individual autonomy, law and order, the Christian faith and the return to a mythical past, at least for white Americans. The Democratic Party, especially under Bill Clinton and Biden, became largely indistinguishable from the establishment Republican Party to which it is now allied.
The Democratic Party refuses to accept its responsibility for the capture of democratic institutions by a rapacious oligarchy, the grotesque social inequality, the cruelty of predatory corporations and an unchecked militarism. The Democrats will anoint another amoral politician, probably Harris, to use as a mask for outsized corporate greed, the folly of endless war, the facilitation of genocide and the assault on our most basic civil liberties." I'm also done with this conversation. Appreciate what you both have clearly stated. Bye for now. Rob