Amazing.

90% of my comment was to explicitly say what Democrats do. And you managed to single out the 10% that wasn’t about Democrats.

Why stop there? Throw in some “both sides” stuff too.

There are policy details on her website: https://kamalaharris.com/issues/

But it’s pretty simple overall. She’s not a maverick, what’s on offer is simply the Dem agenda with a younger change of guard. The Dems believe in running the economy from the middle class, because investing in people is how we achieve long-term economic success and improve quality of life. So all her policies are going to be the same they would have been for Obama or Biden: improve social protections, improve access to education, improve access to housing, lower costs of living, make the corporations and wealthy pay their fair shares, pull away from needless wars, strengthen international relationships and create trade agreements of mutual benefit.

She can talk policy until she’s blue in the face, but we all should already know exactly what we are getting when we vote for a Democrat. The last time this country had a balanced budget it was Democrat. When we raise the minimum wage, it’s a Democrat. When we try to make education more affordable or help those with student debt, it’s a Democrat. When we strengthen unions and increase taxes on corporations, it’s a Democrat. When we pull out of wars, when we increase social services, when we increase protections for minorities, when we secure our clean water and block chemicals and pesticides in our food and household products, when we raise fuel efficiency standards and make corporations pay for pollution, it’s a Democrat.

It baffles me that we have to talk about this stuff like it’s new. It’s simple and it has been for years:

You want a party that runs the economy like adults, and works for the middle class and the well-being of the people: Democrats.

You want a party that works for the rich and corporations, blows up the budgets recklessly, and thinks the low and middle classes are a resource to be used and drained: Republicans.

While we are on this spicy topic today, someone please remind me, what did Jill Stein do?

the democrats have advanced progressive policies these past 4 years

Did you mean decades?

The Democrats are the only party in the US creating good jobs for workers, supporting unions and rising salaries, increasing the minimum wage, investing in the middle class, trying to reign in corporations, stopping the wars started by the GOP, and managing the economy like adults trying to close down the deficit gaps created by GOP policies.

The third party candidates are unfiltered BS candidates that are neither experienced nor prepared to lead, and don’t even care or try to govern since their campaigns are not designed to win any seats but only to gather attention and draw votes away from Dems.

And there’s no point in speaking of the GOP since it should be obvious to anyone serious what the GOP does to education, middle class, salaries, unions, deficit, and now with their Project 2025 plan for minorities and anyone that doesn’t identify as rural white Christian.

voting for a third party is fine

Try again.

deleted by creator

https://www.phillymag.com/news/2019/09/14/donald-trump-at-wharton-university-of-pennsylvania/

It’s rare for a professor to disparage the intelligence of a student, but according to attorney Frank DiPrima, who was close friends with professor William T. Kelley for 47 years, the prof made an exception for Donald Trump, at least in private. “He must have told me that 100 times over the course of 30 years,” says DiPrima, who has been practicing law since 1963 and has served as in-house counsel for entities including the Federal Trade Commission and Playboy Enterprises. “I remember the inflection of his voice when he said it: ‘Donald Trump was the dumbest goddamn student I ever had!’” He would say that [Trump] came to Wharton thinking he already knew everything, that he was arrogant and he wasn’t there to learn.”

Trump is an imbecile that can barely string sentences together, so what he says needs to be translated for the rest of us.

In that particular instance, what he was trying to say with his limited ability to communicate, is that he believes that Kamala had tried to distance herself from her black heritage when she thought it was politically convenient in the past. But then she decided to reclaim her black heritage when she felt it could help her politically once again. He is accusing her of playing racial identity politics with her own racial background.

The “put out” in that statement was him trying to say that Kamala herself issued political messaging to distance herself from her black heritage. He was saying that Kamala herself “put that messaging out.” So that moment in the debate wasn’t about slut shaming, it was about racial politics shaming.

I’m pretty sure she’s answered the question every single time. She starts framing the question about how she intended to anchor her economics on boosting the middle class. She starts repeating the thing about being middle class, for the people listening that are slow and need to have things repeated and simplified.

Clearly, even her trying her best to make it simple for the simpletons wasn’t enough, when some of them think she’s not answering the questions. The same people then turn around and say the guy that speaks about sharks and batteries and rambles about crowd sizes and hating immigrants is for sure an economics genius that always answers the questions. What a time to be alive.

This is true, but it’s also incredibly dumb. Like teens that choose to hang out with local drug gangs and throw their future away. You can see why it happens, but it’s so wasteful and stupid, and always ends in misery.

What we are ultimately talking about is the depth of stupidity that people are capable of.

Before the flathearthers, Tea Party, Q-anon and the MAGA movements, we simply did not account for just how fucking dumb the average person can be under bad circumstances.

This is the essence of Trump’s rise to power. His political advisors called this “an opportunity” and tripled down on it. They believed that a bad-faith movement could build a coalition of the mentally unstable, susceptible morons, cultish religion indoctrinated, under-educated and socially fringed. Easily swept up with Nazi-style messaging and politics.

The solution: At an individual level, if you know someone you seek to save, work to expose them to real information by being a positive and understanding presence in their lives, and slowly showing them the way out of the prison of stupidity inside their own heads.

At a global level, we must exact hard costs on their movement as a whole and each participant as people. We must make it highly expensive and damaging to support fascism. They are already paying the price of being marginalized socially, but costs need to be much higher.

This cost is the reason Trump has not been able to inspire his moron minions to violence in the last couple years. They see that MAGA minions get imprisoned, their lives ruined, and possibly shot in the head, and they simply don’t turn up for Trump’s calls to violence anymore. The public cost of participation in fascism works as a deterrent, so we need to crank up the costs significantly higher.

If they think they are going to double down on fascism because you called them out, then you must triple down on exacting a price for their bullshit. At some point they’ll realize it’s not worth it. Just like all these MAGA men on dating apps now pretending to be apolitical because they can’t get any women to take them seriously. Suddenly, the pride in their shitty convictions is out the window when they realize they won’t be allowed to participate in society. Keep making them pay the price of choosing poorly. The harder you hit them, the faster you help them do some much needed introspection.

There is no license. That’s why a nakedly bad-faith propaganda network like Fox or RT can call themselves “News” and get away with it for decades at a time.

In the US, only money has a real say. The way to force news networks to shape up is to keep finding them in damages for deliberately misrepresenting the truth. In other words, treat their misinformation as the deliberate fraud that it is, identify how it’s hurting our society, put a $ number to that damage, and sue networks like Fox into extinction.

They already had to pay nearly a billion from hurting one company.

This was pretty fun and surprisingly wholesome even for him. He went into a town hall event that was like 70% hard MAGA people wearing red hats and Trump shirts. He talked to them as people and made fun of himself. He even wore the Trump hat and posed for pictures with the MAGA kids https://pbs.twimg.com/media/GXOS8rYWgAAXW2s?format=jpg&name=900x900

Everyone seemed to be having a good time. The president did his best to entertain, and show people with a narrow worldview that there’s humans on the other side too.

The story of that red Trump hat he is wearing in the pic is that he traded it. He gave a MAGA guy a unique Biden presidential hat signed by him, the fancy WH ones they make specifically for the president to wear. In return, Biden demanded the red hat from that guy’s head as a trophy. Then they shook hands.

We don’t live in a perfect world. Someone is going to be president for the next 4 years, and at this stage of the game we have 2 distinct choices.

Also, what you called half-assed someone else might call the democracy process. Just because YOU want something doesn’t mean I want the same thing. Your vision for how to solve Palestine or Ukraine or improve wealth equality might be vastly different from mine. Just because you don’t get exactly what you want doesn’t mean the system is useless or not worth participating in. If you were to get exactly what you want, then I’d be getting walked over. If I get exactly what I want, then you’d say you are not being heard.

The only fair system is to elect a big-tent party and then work through dialog on trying to reach either consensus or fair compromise on the various topics. But we won’t have that option if we let the fascists get control and do their Project 2025 thing while ignoring us.

Here is another take. You vote for both:

1. The group that most closely resembles what you want AND
2. The group that most likely will listen to your requests during the administration

If there are things you want changed, Nov 5 is not the last day but the beginning. The next president will make decisions for 4 years, and every decision is influenced by people and our voices.

Ask yourself, between Harris and Trump, which administration is most likely to want the things I want, and which is most likely to listen and be influenced by my side of political views and the people I support?

For me, the answer is a hard NO on Trump, and a pretty solid Yes on Harris.

Like the other thread abut guns. Sure, the Dems talk about wanting gun reform and it never gets done because they don’t have a super majority in Congress. But the GOP is 100% against it and will never contribute. Which side is more likely to do anything to help the reform I want to see? 4 years of Dems is a good amount of time to press for issues and seek some improvements. If I let the GOP have 4 more years, we are not even going to talk about change until the next election.

Those that are willing to sit out an election because the Dems are not perfect, are inflicting the worst candidate on all of us and themselves. Don’t you dare later complain about school shootings, wealth inequality, tax cuts for the rich, abuse of queer folks, women’s rights, international inhumane policy. Don’t inflict Trump on us and then pretend to care about our issues or be on our side. If you sit out, you’ve picked a side.

No. Half of what you wrote is disconnected from what I’m saying. So let’s reset.

The present: Israel lives with a terrorist group next door that is constantly launching rockets at them and planning and executing genocide on the people of Israel. That needs to be addressed. Israel is sick of it and they decided to remove Hamas.

The US weapon guardrails are mainly to define what an appropriate use of each weapon type would be. Lots of the weapons provided to Israel are not allowed for use in Gaza due to the type of damage they cause deemed incompatible with the type of conflict. If the US pulled out of these weapon deals, all the weapons (bombs) that are currently banned would be on the menu to Israel. If you think Gaza is taking damage now, consider that the damage so far has been hampered through limitations imposed by the West.

The US supports protecting civilians, ending terrorism, and finding a permanent solution to this eternal animosity. We are the ones imposing limitations on war actions and weapons, and forcing in food convoys.

The fastest route is to end the Hamas rule as quickly as possible and transition to rebuilding Gaza and establishing Palestinian statehood. That’s what the US is currently working on. I have not seen anyone here propose a solution that would move faster towards enduring peace.

Whether people here are informed enough to recognize it, we are currently on the best path available towards progress in these centuries-old conflicts in the Middle East. The other half-baked low-information ideas proposed in this forum are not better than what the US is doing right now. “Just stop selling them weapons” is not only not going to work, it’s a dumb idea that would make things worse.

The future: Low information actors like the people in this forum are at fault for the situation that we are in now. These conflicts started long ago, and we prevented a resolution and made them worse with the naive calls to cease intervention. Hamas took control in the the 2000s because of people like you naively helping them on.

The only way to have a better future is to stop kicking the can down the road. And the US is not direct party to this conflict, so we can’t unilaterally do anything to change it. Again, backing out of weapons agreements would only make Israel bomb Gaza twice as hard, and then invite a larger war in the region.

You think our difference is that I’m ok with forgiving a little “genocide” from my elected officials. NO. I’m old enough to have been through several cycles of this Israel v terrorism crap. Hamas is mostly at fault for our current state of affairs, and I understand these issues enough to recognize that my elected officials are working on the best available course of action given the impossible nature of this type of eternal hate and genocidal intent from all parties towards each other in the Middle East.

You “stop the weapons” guys want some magical way to do better, save more lives and end conflicts faster. But when asked what’s the plan, we get crickets. “Just get Israel to stop and back off” is exactly how we ended up with Hamas terrorizing Gaza this century and using civilians as shields - learn the history circa 2005-7.

Today, the real plan is political, hard and messy. The “no weapons” plan has no merit, no future, and will only makes things worse. That’s why the current admin doesn’t spend much time taking advice from tiktok-tier ideas.

I want my US elected officials to protect civilians and seek to end the eternal wars in that region. That’s why I want them to ignore the no-plan ideas, and continue with the difficult work they are already doing to try to find a real and sustainable solution.

Yes, I trust Harris with the next 4 years of this situation way more than I’d trust this low-information forum. I don’t see Harris as “the better of 2 bad choices,” I see Harris as having a real plan that makes sense and is way better than any low-info ideas I’ve read here.

Also, in case the nuance is getting lost since we don’t all get our information from the same sources,

When the US sells weapons to Israel, the purpose is to ensure peace in the region by helping them hold a line of defense against military attacks from antagonistic countries; and in the case of Hamas, for the anti-terrorism operation of removing Hamas from power in Gaza, so that Palestinians can pursue self-determination free from terrorist rule.

Also, because around these parts the echo chambers are deafening,

https://www.pewresearch.org/2024/03/21/majority-in-u-s-say-israel-has-valid-reasons-for-fighting-fewer-say-the-same-about-hamas/

Most Americans are against the suffering of civilians in Gaza, but understand that under Hamas rule the Gaza people are screwed, and long-lasting peace is impossible, so there’s significant value in removing Hamas from power so that we can drive towards a better future. This is the purpose for which we continue to sell any weapons to Israel that may be used in the Gaza operation, and we use the agreements to enforce guardrails to minimize civilian casualties.

In summary, If you think the Biden admin is supporting genocide, I wanted to point out that as far as the US leadership understands it, the weapons sales are intended for the purpose of driving towards peace, minimizing civilian casualties, and improving conditions for people in the region in the long-term. Whether you agree with that vision or not.

What’s unclear is the alternative long-term solution that the “stop supporting Israel” crowd have mapped out for the region. What exactly is supposed to get better if the US pulls out and washes its hands of peace deals and weapons agreements, so that Israel and Hamas can double down on bombing each other to the last drop of blood?

Someone explain to me the 10 year plan that the “stop selling weapons” side has envisions for the Gaza region. Because I know Harris wants to end the war, rebuild Gaza, and force a permanent peace by leading international negotiations for Palestinian statehood. I cannot imagine a workable pathway that’s more pro peace and pro civilians.

cutting off aid money and weapons sales

I don’t understand this line of thinking.

First, Israel doesn’t need top-tier modern weapons to attack a defenseless civilian population. If Israel’s goal was outright genocide as it’s being put, they could buy mid-tier weapons from any manufacturer for that purpose.

Second, if the US stops selling US-grade weapons to Israel, that will signal to the region that Israel is open to military attacks, which might result in a larger scale multi-country war that would dwarf the Gaza conflict.

Those that care about the lives of innocent civilians in the region should prefer that the weapons sold to Israel come with Western strings attached and conditions as part of the weapons agreements, and should also care that the region doesn’t descend into another 1960s-70s war era but with more modern and powerful weapons.

See on US weapons:

https://www.usnews.com/news/world/articles/2023-12-11/israel-must-comply-with-laws-of-war-under-us-weapons-assistance-policy

The U.S. expects every country receiving its military assistance to use it “in full compliance with international humanitarian law and the laws of war, and Israel is no exception,” State Department spokesperson Matthew Miller told a news briefing on Monday.

Enforcing the Western weapons rules is politically complex, but not having any rules on those weapons would only embolden Israel’s operation in Gaza. I hope people around here will come to understand that every time you call for the US to pull out of weapon deals in Israel, what you are advocating for is to remove the weapons restrictions the West imposes on Israel.

It seems like we are talking about different things.

Also,

What you want to do is to flip the narrative by remaining calm, focusing on the facts, and pointing out the flaws in your opponents arguments.

We know with well-tested confidence that that does nothing for half the electorate.

I’m talking about controlling the narrative a bit more. Dems are masters at speaking ineffectively and letting the media decide the narrative. And the media spends half its time reacting to whatever outlandish thing Trump said. And Trump says the outlandish stuff on purpose to control the narrative.

So 80% of the time we are in this cycle: Trump says something insane on purpose -> media reports it like it’s half presidential and worth talking about -> Dems are asked to comment on it -> Dems try to ignore it or reply something sensible that gets buried.

The effect is this: Trump controls the narrative -> the whorish media is happy to repeat his BS and normalize him for clicks -> whatever Dems want to talk about doesn’t matter. Low effort voters see Trump and his message everywhere courtesy of the whorish media. Trump remains a viable candidate.

I’m proposing that Dems could try to join the cycle at the input level instead of the tail end. If they say some aggressive or outlandish things about Trump, they’d be trend setters at the start of the cycle instead of irrelevant at the end of it. Like what happened with the “weird” thing, when seemingly by accident the Dems landed one narrative origination that left Trump on the receiving end unable to shake it.

My point is that this shouldn’t happen by accident. The Dems should plan it as part of narrative control. Keep a schedule and say another big thing once per week. Give the media something big to talk about, keep an aggressive message on Trump and his prosecutions, crimes, terrible policies and so on. Anything that controls the narrative, puts Trump on the defensive, and makes the media spread the Dems message instead of giving Trump free publicity.

When the Dems choose not to do this, they are letting the media decide what narrative they want and the media will always prefer to go with sensationalized BS as much as possible, which usually means going over to Trump to say something insane so they have more fodder to normalize and talk about for clicks.

I think that’s a good point. I wonder if reasonable politicians should prepare a few outlandish talking points to give the media something tasty to sink their teeth into. Like do a normal interview saying normal thoughtful and nuanced things, but also throw in a couple specific wacky clickbait nuggets so the media has what they crave for their news cycle.

Like, what if Kamala had worked this into her interview: Once his criminal trials are over, I don’t think imprisonment in Attica would be appropriate for Trump as an ex president.

Leave it at that and have the media frenzy over it, even though it means nothing. Then they won’t spend as much time trying to invent drama over her interview because she gave them some drama to go with.

I think that’s what Trump is best at. Trump knows most of his base are dumb and the media are thirsty clickbait whores, so he treats his interviews with the decorum of a 2-bit bordello and ends up getting tons of attention that works for his base.

6’3" 215lbs, is what Trump claimed for the official Georgia arrest record https://www.newsweek.com/donald-trump-height-weight-measurements-georgia-new-york-1822430

For comparison, the same body specs as Ukrainian MMA fighter Nikita Krylov https://www.sherdog.com/fighter/Nikita-Krylov-110937#!

https://apnews.com/article/fact-check-trump-afghanistan-troops-killed-659053265479

There were 63 US military deaths in Afghanistan during the Trump administration. This piece of shit goes around saying that nobody died in that operation during his watch, and talks about how Biden cost the US THIRTEEN lives during the sundown of the Afghanistan war started by Republicans - a series of wars that go back to the first part of the century and sank the country in unimaginable debt.

Biden will be remembered for putting his foot down on the forever wars. And he will be remembered for eviscerating Russia’s military and strengthening our EU alliance, using only a fraction of the US military national budget and without putting a single American solider in harm’s way.

This piece of shit thinks that’s a bad record for Biden, and he is going to go around lying about it, pretending he is making some powerful points about which parties does most to keep us safe.

Who starts unwinnable wars? Who has a barrage of “unavoidable” incidents on their watch? From terrorist attacks to pandemics to historical financial crashes and absurd deficits, it’s always a Republican having to make excuses … “who could have thought the terrorists were plotting and attack, or that the war on terror would take decades” … “who could have known the virus wasn’t going to disappear by April like a miracle.”

Somehow the GOP that keeps us safe and is “best” at the economy are the same asswipes that can’t protect us from attacks, start wildly misguided wars, and sink us into unpayable debt planted squarely on the shoulders of our youth.

But it’s all somehow Harris’ fault now. And this piece of shit is going to tell us why by fabricating some nonsense about the Biden admin, and lying about his party’s record and his own.