Its Time Some Americans Woke Up and Faced Reality.

[IM2]

You never have.

I face them every day. You are the one living in the delusion.

 

[Nostra]

More stump stupid.

I have no idea WTF that is supposed to mean, Simp.

But at least you are on record calling Biden a racist.

 

[Independent thinker]

Wrong. It's time you right wingers stopped reading the bullshit you read.

This bullshit is coming from YOUR bought and paid for media and pollsters.

 

[blackhawk]

 

[Orangecat]

The rest of our allies do not want to see a second trump presidency. And so what kind of allies do you think we will have if Trump wins again? Putin? Do you STUPID mfs think Putin wants a friendship with this country? He wants us to self destruct so we don't stand in his way. And some of you idiots are falling for it.

Opinion: Here’s what America’s allies think about a potential Trump second term​

A few months ago, friends in the Netherlands asked me who I thought would win the 2024 US presidential election. They nodded placidly when I said I thought the odds favored President Joe Biden, but nearly jumped out of their seats when I said former President Donald Trump has a not-negligible chance of returning to the White House.

My friends, it turned out, had not been paying close attention. They thought Trump was history. Now they know better. Europe and much of the world has awakened to the real possibility that the twice-impeached, twice-indicted Trump might be the Republican nominee, and they are growing alarmed.

And if Europeans —and Ukrainians and South Koreans and Taiwanese — are concerned, Americans have far more reason to worry. Trump’s chaotic presidency didn’t achieve many of its goals because of the inexperience, incompetence and lack of discipline of key members of his administration, along with the strength of US democratic institutions and the people who worked to safeguard them.

But a second term might be different.

Admittedly, much can happen before the election. The GOP primaries could surprise, and Trump’s legal troubles could get in his way. For the moment, however, his primary opponents are mostly not gaining traction. Sixteen months from now, he could be on his third straight presidential ticket.

I’ll predict that anyone who thought the Trump presidency was disastrous — and polling shows that includes many Americans and most citizens of America’s allies — will find Trump 2.0 even more cataclysmic.

Trump now has a strong operation in developing meticulous plans for a possible second term. The overarching goal is to make the former president more powerful than ever, enabling some of his autocratic inclinations.

In a second Trump administration, according to those plans, the Department of Justice could lose its independence, coming under full control of the president, who would be able to mobilize it against his foes and protect his friends. Other independent agencies, those regulating the media or monopolies would also lose their autonomy if the strategy succeeds.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/opinions/trump-second-term-us-allies-foreign-policy-ghitis/index.html

Of course the rest of the world fears an America-first POTUS. That’s why they like Biden. You should move abroad if you share that sentiment. If you can afford to, that is.

 

[Orangecat]

You should care because other countries can cut us off from trade.

We’re the largest market in the world. That would hurt them more than us.

 

[Nostra]

Another IM2 thread blows up in his face from the jump.

Whodathunkit?

 

[IM2]

Another IM2 thread blows up in his face from the jump.

Whodathunkit?

Really? I don't think so. The usual personal attacks by the same subhuman scum means nothing.

 

[Nostra]

Really? I don't think so. The usual personal attacks by the same subhuman scum means nothing.

You never figure out when one of your moronic threads bites you in the ass, Simp. You brought an opinion piece from a far left CNN hack who talked to a few friends in the Netherlands and then claims our allies don't want another Trump term. How would that dumbassery NOT blow up in your face, Moron?

 

[IM2]

As the 2024 election approaches, voters are increasingly likely to face a matchup between two candidates who have both already had a go at the job: President Biden and former president Donald Trump.

This rerun can be pretty dispiriting. But, in some ways, it’s also kind of … useful? Usually, in an election year, voters can only speculate about how campaign promises might translate into real-life governing decisions. In this election, we have a rare opportunity to evaluate actual, existing track records before casting our ballots.

So let’s take a look at what these candidates have done — and might do going forward — on the issue voters care most about: inflation.

Let’s look at Biden’s record first.

Some of the things Republicans claim Biden did to juice inflation are bogus. For example: No, Biden did not wage a war on American energy. To the contrary, U.S. crude oil production just broke another record, for the second month in a row. And Biden has approved about as many permits to drill on public lands as Trump did.

Take his $1.9 trillion fiscal package, passed in early 2021. That law’s near-universal stimulus checks, among other things, boosted consumer demand when demand was already strong and supply was still constrained. This helped bid up prices. The U.S. economy probably would have experienced elevated inflation no matter what — once again, inflation has been a global phenomenon — but on the margin, Biden’s stimulus likely made it somewhat worse.

He has also extended most of the Trump-era tariffs, which are at least partially passed through to consumers in the form of higher prices.

On the other hand: This kind of stuff is small potatoes compared with Trump’s economic missteps. Trump, after all, also passed a major stimulus on his way out the door, in December 2020 — one with smaller but similarly designed stimulus checks.

Trump is also the person who levied all those dang tariffs in the first place. Further, he has announced plans to ramp up his trade wars with a worldwide 10 percent tariff. This would not only alienate all our allies, it would also create a massive price shock for U.S. consumers.

Both during and before the pandemic, Trump also worked to ratchet down immigration — especially legal, work-authorized immigration. As the economy exited the pandemic, Trump policies slowing down immigration processing worsened labor shortages, which probably contributed to inflation.

In fact, one of the underappreciated things Biden did to lessen inflation was to normalize the legal immigration system by undoing Trump-era sabotage. (You’ll rarely hear Biden boast about this success story, perhaps for obvious political reasons.)

In any case, by far, the worst policy choice Trump made relating to inflation involved his handling of the Federal Reserve.

For decades, presidents understood this and took pains to safeguard the Fed’s independence. When Trump was president, though, he threw this tradition out the window — by threatening to fire the Fed chair after rate hikes and by trying to install his political lackeys on the Fed board.

Trump has lately signaled plans to strong-arm the Fed if he recaptures the White House and force it to cut rates. Biden, meanwhile, has returned to that long-standing tradition of staying out of the Fed’s way. This, arguably, is the most important thing Biden has done, and can do, in the fight against inflation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/05/biden-inflation-record-trump/

 

[lantern2814]

The usual personal attacks by the same subhuman scum means nothing.

^^^ Irony.

 

[ActionJackson]

Just In:

DOJ finds Biden guilty of crimes but admits that he's too stupid to stand trial for his transgressions against the American people. America's enemies would LOVE to see a second Biden term.

 

[Nostra]

As the 2024 election approaches, voters are increasingly likely to face a matchup between two candidates who have both already had a go at the job: President Biden and former president Donald Trump.

This rerun can be pretty dispiriting. But, in some ways, it’s also kind of … useful? Usually, in an election year, voters can only speculate about how campaign promises might translate into real-life governing decisions. In this election, we have a rare opportunity to evaluate actual, existing track records before casting our ballots.

So let’s take a look at what these candidates have done — and might do going forward — on the issue voters care most about: inflation.

Let’s look at Biden’s record first.

Some of the things Republicans claim Biden did to juice inflation are bogus. For example: No, Biden did not wage a war on American energy. To the contrary, U.S. crude oil production just broke another record, for the second month in a row. And Biden has approved about as many permits to drill on public lands as Trump did.

Take his $1.9 trillion fiscal package, passed in early 2021. That law’s near-universal stimulus checks, among other things, boosted consumer demand when demand was already strong and supply was still constrained. This helped bid up prices. The U.S. economy probably would have experienced elevated inflation no matter what — once again, inflation has been a global phenomenon — but on the margin, Biden’s stimulus likely made it somewhat worse.

He has also extended most of the Trump-era tariffs, which are at least partially passed through to consumers in the form of higher prices.

On the other hand: This kind of stuff is small potatoes compared with Trump’s economic missteps. Trump, after all, also passed a major stimulus on his way out the door, in December 2020 — one with smaller but similarly designed stimulus checks.

Trump is also the person who levied all those dang tariffs in the first place. Further, he has announced plans to ramp up his trade wars with a worldwide 10 percent tariff. This would not only alienate all our allies, it would also create a massive price shock for U.S. consumers.

Both during and before the pandemic, Trump also worked to ratchet down immigration — especially legal, work-authorized immigration. As the economy exited the pandemic, Trump policies slowing down immigration processing worsened labor shortages, which probably contributed to inflation.

In fact, one of the underappreciated things Biden did to lessen inflation was to normalize the legal immigration system by undoing Trump-era sabotage. (You’ll rarely hear Biden boast about this success story, perhaps for obvious political reasons.)

In any case, by far, the worst policy choice Trump made relating to inflation involved his handling of the Federal Reserve.

For decades, presidents understood this and took pains to safeguard the Fed’s independence. When Trump was president, though, he threw this tradition out the window — by threatening to fire the Fed chair after rate hikes and by trying to install his political lackeys on the Fed board.

Trump has lately signaled plans to strong-arm the Fed if he recaptures the White House and force it to cut rates. Biden, meanwhile, has returned to that long-standing tradition of staying out of the Fed’s way. This, arguably, is the most important thing Biden has done, and can do, in the fight against inflation.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions/2023/12/05/biden-inflation-record-trump/

Another far left opinion piece.........this one behind a paywall.

This thread isn't going well for you, Simp.

 

[IM2]

You never figure out when one of your moronic threads bites you in the ass, Simp. You brought an opinion piece from a far left CNN hack who talked to a few friends in the Netherlands and then claims our allies don't want another Trump term. How would that dumbassery NOT blow up in your face, Moron?

Nothing has bit me anywhere. Thie opinions of the world citizens are very important and the fact is that if we re elect trump to the presidency we will lose allies. Now you can keep living in your little imaginary world where the US is the only power and the rest of the planet revolves around us, or face the fact that we have no protection if we don't have any allies.

The Guardian view on a second Trump presidency: things could only get worse​

The great spectre haunting 2024 is the threat of Donald Trump triumphing in November’s election. A second stint in the Oval Office would have grim repercussions for the US and the world. He dominates the Republican race for the presidential candidacy, while recent polls showed him beating Joe Biden in five of the six key battleground states, and besting the president on issues including the economy and national security. The Biden administration has overseen a striking economic recovery in tough global conditions, but voters don’t feel the improvement. The president’s handling of the war in Gaza is alienating core supporters. He inspires little enthusiasm.

What would Mr Trump’s return to the White House mean for America and the world? Nothing good.

On the international front, the battle against global heating would be struck a catastrophic blow. A second Trump presidency would clearly be good for Vladimir Putin and bad for Ukraine and Nato, which the US could well leave. Mr Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy puts himself first, and has only the most narrow and short-term conception of US interests. Allies such as South Korea are already contemplating their own nuclear deterrents. He would seek to hammer China on trade again, and Republicans would encourage him to go further on other fronts, but his admiration for autocrats might allow him to come to terms with Xi Jinping on some issues – notably, Taiwan’s future. Overall, his ignorance, arrogance and erratic nature could be as damaging as his pursuit of specific goals.

The Guardian view on a second Trump presidency: things could only get worse

Editorial: Over the holidays, this column will explore next year’s urgent issues. Today we look at the danger posed by the former president’s bid for reelection

www.theguardian.com

 

[IM2]

Just In:

DOJ finds Biden guilty of crimes but admits that he's too stupid to stand trial for his transgressions against the American people. America's enemies would LOVE to see a second Biden term.

Wrong.

 

[IM2]

Another far left opinion piece.........this one behind a paywall.

This thread isn't going well for you, Simp.

The facts. Learn to deal with then. You live in an alternate reality believing things that are not so. You can't afford the subscription?

 

[Nostra]

Nothing has bit me anywhere. Thie opinions of the world citizens are very important and the fact is that if we re elect trump to the presidency we will lose allies. Now you can keep living in your little imaginary world where the US is the only power and the rest of the planet revolves around us, or face the fact that we have no protection if we don't have any allies.

The Guardian view on a second Trump presidency: things could only get worse​

The great spectre haunting 2024 is the threat of Donald Trump triumphing in November’s election. A second stint in the Oval Office would have grim repercussions for the US and the world. He dominates the Republican race for the presidential candidacy, while recent polls showed him beating Joe Biden in five of the six key battleground states, and besting the president on issues including the economy and national security. The Biden administration has overseen a striking economic recovery in tough global conditions, but voters don’t feel the improvement. The president’s handling of the war in Gaza is alienating core supporters. He inspires little enthusiasm.

What would Mr Trump’s return to the White House mean for America and the world? Nothing good.

On the international front, the battle against global heating would be struck a catastrophic blow. A second Trump presidency would clearly be good for Vladimir Putin and bad for Ukraine and Nato, which the US could well leave. Mr Trump’s transactional approach to foreign policy puts himself first, and has only the most narrow and short-term conception of US interests. Allies such as South Korea are already contemplating their own nuclear deterrents. He would seek to hammer China on trade again, and Republicans would encourage him to go further on other fronts, but his admiration for autocrats might allow him to come to terms with Xi Jinping on some issues – notably, Taiwan’s future. Overall, his ignorance, arrogance and erratic nature could be as damaging as his pursuit of specific goals.

The Guardian view on a second Trump presidency: things could only get worse

Editorial: Over the holidays, this column will explore next year’s urgent issues. Today we look at the danger posed by the former president’s bid for reelection

www.theguardian.com

Another far left OPINION piece with no underlying data to support their insane conclusions.

Man, this thread just isn't working for you, Moron.

 

[Nostra]

The facts. Learn to deal with then. You live in an alternate reality believing things that are not so.

Um there is a reason they have your lefty hack on the OPINION page, Dumbass.

 

[AntonToo]

Give me a good alternative to Trump and Biden and I’ll gladly vote for them but those two are embarrassing Presidents..

Only one of them concerns all of our allies.

 

[Yarddog]

The rest of our allies do not want to see a second trump presidency. And so what kind of allies do you think we will have if Trump wins again? Putin? Do you STUPID mfs think Putin wants a friendship with this country? He wants us to self destruct so we don't stand in his way. And some of you idiots are falling for it.

Opinion: Here’s what America’s allies think about a potential Trump second term​

A few months ago, friends in the Netherlands asked me who I thought would win the 2024 US presidential election. They nodded placidly when I said I thought the odds favored President Joe Biden, but nearly jumped out of their seats when I said former President Donald Trump has a not-negligible chance of returning to the White House.

My friends, it turned out, had not been paying close attention. They thought Trump was history. Now they know better. Europe and much of the world has awakened to the real possibility that the twice-impeached, twice-indicted Trump might be the Republican nominee, and they are growing alarmed.

And if Europeans —and Ukrainians and South Koreans and Taiwanese — are concerned, Americans have far more reason to worry. Trump’s chaotic presidency didn’t achieve many of its goals because of the inexperience, incompetence and lack of discipline of key members of his administration, along with the strength of US democratic institutions and the people who worked to safeguard them.

But a second term might be different.

Admittedly, much can happen before the election. The GOP primaries could surprise, and Trump’s legal troubles could get in his way. For the moment, however, his primary opponents are mostly not gaining traction. Sixteen months from now, he could be on his third straight presidential ticket.

I’ll predict that anyone who thought the Trump presidency was disastrous — and polling shows that includes many Americans and most citizens of America’s allies — will find Trump 2.0 even more cataclysmic.

Trump now has a strong operation in developing meticulous plans for a possible second term. The overarching goal is to make the former president more powerful than ever, enabling some of his autocratic inclinations.

In a second Trump administration, according to those plans, the Department of Justice could lose its independence, coming under full control of the president, who would be able to mobilize it against his foes and protect his friends. Other independent agencies, those regulating the media or monopolies would also lose their autonomy if the strategy succeeds.

https://www.cnn.com/2023/07/18/opinions/trump-second-term-us-allies-foreign-policy-ghitis/index.html

If Trump had been president, the Ukranian invasion never would have happened. Putin would not have been able to guess what Trump would do and there would be an amount of fear. Biden is an open book for all our enemies to read, they know he can only react in bits and measures, never proactive. Putin would have backed down had he known the invasion would have been this costly to Russia.
It was a complete diplomatic failure that Biiden was not stong enough to convey that message.