President Biden: The NEW one and only politics thread

It is odd - I've mentioned this before - but if you look at the last three GOP Presidents who followed Dems, they all launched their presidencies by declaring a "threat" Reagan had the evil empire of Russia, W had the axis of Evil, and not Trump is pretty much letting the world know the "threat" is us. Last three Dems who followed GOP presidencies, Clinton dealing with the economy, Obama dealing with the market meltdown, Biden dealing with COVID.

 

Whirlpool got Trump to put tariffs on foreign made washing machines in his first term. They were exempt, but raised their price to match the tariff increase anyway.

And all of them raised prices on dryers - even though they were exempt - to match the washers.

 

“Maximum peril” is probably best reserved for DEFCON 1 imminent nuclear attack.
But the other 98% of it is right on.

 

There is no sense in understating the depth of the disaster. This is a crisis like no other in our lifetimes.

He must be a pretty young guy. And of course living in Canada.

COVID was a pretty big crisis. Caused by China - tho, somehow, it morphed quite quickly into the United States' fault - and, as I recall, pretty bad.

IMO, social media has overwhelmed people's brains and turned this time into an unrelenting crush of anxiety. We're overreacting to many things. Not all things, but many things.

 

Nobody thinks COVID was the exclusive fault of the US. But people willing to confront reality are able to see that his apathy — disdain, really— for those not in his social circle and his refusal to accept reality, driven by his selfish need for approval in re-election, combined to exacerbate the situation.
COVID originated in China. It got worse than it should have been in the US because the Trumpist klan decided that vaccination could be twisted into a wedge issue that demonized life-saving intellect and study and glorified ignorant Everyman.

 

Trump’s first presidency was the immigration threat from Muslim countries.

Bush used Axis of Evil after 9/11 and he was right about 2/3rds of those countries (Iraq thought itself a threat but honestly it was just an excuse to go in and finish boys dad’s job).

 

Stupid ideas were a hallmark of Trump's first term, but the grownups were mostly able to dissuade him by flashing different shiny objects at him.

My concern is mostly that none of those grownups came back for Round Two.

When Trump suggests shooting protestors in the legs, will there be someone to say, "uhhhh no," or will his new group of class clowns agree?

 

Yeah, pretty much.

 

House Ethics report finds evidence Matt Gaetz paid thousands for sex and drugs including paying a 17-year-old for sex in 2017

https://www.cnn.com/2024/12/23/politics/matt-gaetz-house-ethics-report/index.html

 

Got one for Matty the Moran, too ...

 

There was an entire episode of The West Wing devoted to this political trend.

It's called "The Mommy Problem."

The argument is that voters turn to Republicans when they want to see signs of strength and protection to address a threat. In this case in 2024, it's the scary non-white immigrants.

They turn to Democrats to make them feel better - healthcare, the economy, education, etc.

It dates back to the 60s. It's probably not 100 percent accurate these days, but it's a compelling generalization.