The Real timschochet

Even if that were true (and I disagree strongly particularly if you include 2020) that’s not what you wrote originally. There is a huge difference between saying that a President is good or bad and our lives during that President’s term of office were good or bad. If I were to accept your theory that it’s the same, the two worst Presidents in American history would be Lincoln and FDR because that’s when things were generally the worst for the most Americans. My own working theory is that it usually takes about 3-4 years for a President’s actions to take effect with the public. Thus if things were good under Trump, it may partly be due to actions that Obama took. If things are bad right now, it may partly be due to actions that Trump took. But in both cases it’s due far more to events that the President is powerless to have any affect on.

I haven’t read anything that @jerryskids has written that remotely hints at racism so I have to strongly disagree with that charge. And I believe him when he states that cultural issues are why he will vote for Donald Trump. But I don’t understand it. Cultural issues, whatever your position are on them, are based on public trends. There is almost nothing a President can do to change them one way or another. As a general rule we move forward in one direction until there is a backlash at which point we move in the other direction and then eventually reverse course again. If you want to look at long periods of time, such as decades or centuries, it’s pretty easy to see patterns. But it’s very difficult to see them at the moment they’re happening. In any event the political leadership of the country tends to be helpless in these matters. Hollywood, television and now social media are infinitely more powerful. Trump or any President’s attempt to change cultural opinion is just spitting in the wind. Meanwhile, I believe there really IS an existential threat if Donald Trump wins- to our democracy and republican form of government. I’m convinced that Trump is an authoritarian who seeks to accumulate power at the expense of our freedoms. Most conservatives, and perhaps most independents, dismiss this as crazy talk, despite the fact that Trump informs us of his plans at every rally. Or else they just don’t care because inflation is so bad. And some MAGA folks welcome it. It’s very depressing and it’s not looking great.

This may have turned out to be a slight exaggeration.

You mean Trump right? We had a deal to prevent this; Trump broke it.

Yeah but I didn’t understand the logic of this. New Jersey isn’t going red. Why not campaign in Pennsylvania?

Well there’s a lot of time left still between now and November. But as of now you’re probably correct.

Fareed Zakaria gives a compelling argument as to why Trump may win the election: https://www.cnn.com/videos/politics/2024/05/12/fareeds-take-biden-trump-2024-odds-gps-digvid.cnn Thoughtful as always. Unfortunately I have to agree with him. Consider me officially worried.

You imply that I think it’s OK to discriminate against white Christian males. I don’t. But I regard it as a theoretical question because it’s never happened in a manner comparable at all to those who have suffered true discrimination in this country.

Umm no @Voltaire had it right the first time. I don’t think white male Christians are discriminated against in any way that really matters. Not in our society anyhow. They dominate the upper levels of our society (wealthiest people, heads of industry and CEOs) in nearly every category.

I would have voted for him. One of the greats.

Ooh you got me now! So long as they vote (several times each) I don’t care what else they do.

Channeling her inner @Cdub100: https://www.thedailybeast.com/ann-coulter-tells-ramaswamy-she-wouldnt-vote-for-him-because-youre-an-indian Not only does she tell Ramaswamy she could never vote for an Indian (didn’t she use to date that scumbag Dinesh D’Souza?) she adds this nice comment: “There is a core national identity that is the identity of the WASP, and that doesn’t mean we can’t take anyone else in- a Sri Lankan, a Japanese, or an Indian- but the core around which this nation’s values are formed is the WASP” So not only white people, but no Catholics or Jews either. And no Slavic types. Gotta be Aryan for Ann! (British Aryan I guess.)

Never been. Guess I’ll find out. Can’t be worse than Heathrow.

Unbelievable

Then they’re stupid, like I wrote.

It’s stupid. Why would I want to mislead about this anyhow? Who the Fock cares where I spent my summer?

This summer I’m going to Amsterdam for 9 days. Then I’m taking a cruise around Scandinavia for another 10 days, then back to Amsterdam. If somebody asks me later on how I spent the summer of 2024, I’ll tell them I spent it in Amsterdam. And if I post that here no doubt @supermike80 will call me a liar. Because he’s a fool.

I just don’t understand why you parse my words in order to try to catch me in a lie. I didn’t say I spent the WHOLE summer in Istanbul, I said I spent “the summer” there. It was a little over two weeks. Then we spent another week traveling around the rest of Greece and Turkey, then returned to Istanbul for a few days. So suddenly I’m a liar? It’s just really stupid of you. And pointless.

Leftist guys can be chauvinist douchebags too.

1. Because for far too long women have been discriminated against in terms of upper level hiring and still are in many fields. I don’t approve of laws to rectify this, but I approve when people try to do it on their own. 2. They should be. I have no reason to believe they aren’t. 3. No idea. But if there is a discrepancy here we should encourage doing away with it.

And yet between the two of us, only one of us is planning on voting for Donald Trump.

Of course they’re not. But Biden’s responses to crisis after crisis have been on the level of Truman.

I have to say that the one thing I did not anticipate about Joe Biden’s presidency is how excellent he has been at foreign policy. He’s made, IMO, very few mistakes.

Netanyahu and his extremist allies are endangering Israeli security (not to mention ours): https://www.cnn.com/2024/05/10/opinions/netanyahu-israel-extremist-allies-government-gaza-davis/index.html Biden is doing the right thing.

It’s increasing but it’s still only 30% at elite institutions: https://www.bestcolleges.com/news/analysis/number-of-women-presidents-increase-at-elite-research-institutions/#:~:text=Thirty percent of university presidents,increased by 8 percentage points. So we still have a way to go.