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The Biden Administration and All Things Politics

So when you talked about Gazan citizens surrendering independent of Hamas that was essentially nonsense. Got it.
Not at all. If the public opinion polling showed that Gazans wanted a change of course then there would be. Every person in Gaza has the ability to make that choice, and if a sizable majority want that then people will step in to make it happen. The exact mechanics of how it would happen are up in the air, but it is pointless to even speculate because as things stand today the people of Gaza support all the things that led them to where they are. If the people of Gaza want something different then they have to choose it. The people of Gaza have to give up on the idea of making war against the Jews if they want a better future for their kids.

If anything, it is cautionary tale on how powerful propaganda can be. People would literally watch their own children starve and be blown up rather than give up their hate for those they have been taught since birth to hate. All of those lending their voices to the idea that Israel is committing genocide are in practice cheering for the continued starvation and blowing up of Palestinian kids. The people of Gaza need to change and hearing how justified they are in their hatred is counterproductive.
 
Trump has a history of using violent language and his team claiming the context was misunderstood (for example, he used "fight" some 19 times on Jan. 6). I agree that Trump could be understood to be referring to an economic bloodbath only. We'll see if he repeats the term.

Quote-mining is standard US politics going back to before the Civil War. Biden did it here, Trump has done it elsewhere, before them Obama and Kerry, Reagan and Carter, etc.

BTW, a US-backed resolution for a cease came out yesterday(?), but it condemned Hamas.
 
This is a lie.

I can't take this seriously from a poster who keeps whining about "internment camps".

Trump's followers took it to mean a physical fight. Trump has never said they misunderstood him. Your pretensions of what Trump meant have little value.
 

I actually kind of agree with shapiro here. Problem is that many people at the age of 65 are going to have a hard time continuing to work at their job for much longer than that. I know three co workers who are planning to retire this year. 2 of them can barely get around and are pretty crappy workers who shouldn't even be employed here. The other one could definitely continue working as he is physically and mentally fit.
 

Donald Trump has made apocalyptic imagery a defining feature of his presidential election campaign, warning supporters that if he does not win – and avoid criminal prosecution – America will enter its death throes.

Daniel Ziblatt, a political scientist at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, said: “Since 1945 I don’t think there has been a politician in a democracy who’s used such authoritarian language, ever. It’s hard to think of anybody. Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin when running for office don’t use the kind of language that Donald Trump uses, so that’s pretty notable.”


Trump has long sought to sow distrust in the electoral system while using rhetoric outside the boundaries of modern political discourse, dehumanising opponents and immigrants and portraying the US as a nation on the verge of collapse.

During his first run for president, in 2016, he encouraged his supporters to “knock the crap out” of protesters and said he would pay their legal bills if they got into trouble. Should he be denied the presidential nomination at the Republican national convention in Cleveland, he warned, “I think you’d have riots”.

In the summer of 2020, Trump is said to have called for the military to shoot peaceful protesters in Washington during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. When he disputed his election defeat that year, he suggested that an adverse ruling by the Pennsylvania supreme court would “induce violence in the streets”.

Then, at a rally before his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, Trump said: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness … If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”

After the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022, he predicted that “terrible things are going to happen”, and then quoted the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham warning of “riots in the streets” if Trump were charged.

Since declaring his candidacy in November 2022, Trump has intensified inflammatory and racist statements on the campaign trail. He has promised to pardon January 6 insurrectionists, suggested that Gen Mark Milley should be executed and asserted that immigrants who are in the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

At last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump declared: “This is the final battle, they know it. I know it, you know it, and everybody knows it, this is it. Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country.”


He threatened “potential death & destruction” if he was charged by the Manhattan district attorney over a hush money payment and criticised those urging his supporters to remain peaceful, fuming on his Truth Social platform: “OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”

In November, at a rally in New Hampshire, he promised that he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”. In January this year, returning to New Hampshire, Trump told supporters: “I only want to be a dictator for one day.”


History has shown that Trump’s words are taken both seriously and literally by his base. Hannah Muldavin, a former spokesperson for the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack, said: “We know when Donald Trump says something – whether it’s in a tweet or in a speech – his supporters listen.

“That’s what we saw on January 6. His tweet – ‘Be there. Will be wild!’ – led to a rise in activity online that led people to organise and come to DC on January 6. When Trump uses this incendiary language, it’s concerning.”

Trump again referred to immigrants in the country illegally in subhuman terms. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion,” he said. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it.”

Ziblatt added: “No matter what happens there will be some effort to deny the results of the election if he loses. My best-case scenario is a decisive defeat so that his claims of a stolen election are just simply not credible. But if it’s close, as it seems like all indicators suggest, then I would expect violence and threats of violence.

Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Donald Trump is engaged in a misinformation campaign both to raise the expectation of his supporters that he is going to win, he’s ahead, it’s in the bag, and also to set the conditions for claiming that the election was stolen if he doesn’t win. Obviously, these polls are far out and not predictive but he’s clearly using them now to set the conditions.
Charlie Kirk, a far-right political influencer, told an audience at a faith-based event last week: “I want to make sure that we all make a commitment that if this election doesn’t go our way, the next day we fight. It’s a very important thing; a lot of people don’t want to hear that. They say, ‘What do you mean it doesn’t go our way? It has to go our way. We have to win.’ I agree.”

Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington and former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, added: “What I fear is that the repetition of violent rhetoric will lead to the normalisation of violent acts. There’s no sugarcoating it. This is a dangerous period for American constitutional government.

“In the end, the institutions are no better or worse than the men and women who are sworn to defend them and, if they do their duty, we’ll be OK. If they’re stormed, or if they’re paralysed by fear, then there’s a chance that they would not hold. It’s more likely than not that it won’t happen but this election will be the ultimate stress test.”

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots movement, said: “Trump is already spreading lies that this election is rigged and we know there is no realistic scenario where he concedes after losing.

“One big difference between his loss this year and 2020 is this time they’re better prepared and have already gone through a dress rehearsal. But the other big difference is he’s won’t be a sitting president – he’ll just be a sore loser who the nation rejected in record numbers two elections in a row.”
 
This is good news. Well done government
 

Donald Trump has made apocalyptic imagery a defining feature of his presidential election campaign, warning supporters that if he does not win – and avoid criminal prosecution – America will enter its death throes.

Daniel Ziblatt, a political scientist at Harvard University and co-author of How Democracies Die, said: “Since 1945 I don’t think there has been a politician in a democracy who’s used such authoritarian language, ever. It’s hard to think of anybody. Viktor Orbán, Vladimir Putin when running for office don’t use the kind of language that Donald Trump uses, so that’s pretty notable.”


Trump has long sought to sow distrust in the electoral system while using rhetoric outside the boundaries of modern political discourse, dehumanising opponents and immigrants and portraying the US as a nation on the verge of collapse.

During his first run for president, in 2016, he encouraged his supporters to “knock the crap out” of protesters and said he would pay their legal bills if they got into trouble. Should he be denied the presidential nomination at the Republican national convention in Cleveland, he warned, “I think you’d have riots”.

In the summer of 2020, Trump is said to have called for the military to shoot peaceful protesters in Washington during the Black Lives Matter demonstrations. When he disputed his election defeat that year, he suggested that an adverse ruling by the Pennsylvania supreme court would “induce violence in the streets”.

Then, at a rally before his supporters stormed the US Capitol on January 6, Trump said: “You’ll never take back our country with weakness … If you don’t fight like hell, you’re not going to have a country any more.”

After the FBI’s search of his Mar-a-Lago estate in Florida in August 2022, he predicted that “terrible things are going to happen”, and then quoted the South Carolina senator Lindsey Graham warning of “riots in the streets” if Trump were charged.

Since declaring his candidacy in November 2022, Trump has intensified inflammatory and racist statements on the campaign trail. He has promised to pardon January 6 insurrectionists, suggested that Gen Mark Milley should be executed and asserted that immigrants who are in the US illegally are “poisoning the blood of our country”.

At last year’s Conservative Political Action Conference, Trump declared: “This is the final battle, they know it. I know it, you know it, and everybody knows it, this is it. Either they win or we win. And if they win, we no longer have a country.”


He threatened “potential death & destruction” if he was charged by the Manhattan district attorney over a hush money payment and criticised those urging his supporters to remain peaceful, fuming on his Truth Social platform: “OUR COUNTRY IS BEING DESTROYED, AS THEY TELL US TO BE PEACEFUL!”

In November, at a rally in New Hampshire, he promised that he would “root out the communists, Marxists, fascists and the radical left thugs that live like vermin within the confines of our country”. In January this year, returning to New Hampshire, Trump told supporters: “I only want to be a dictator for one day.”


History has shown that Trump’s words are taken both seriously and literally by his base. Hannah Muldavin, a former spokesperson for the congressional committee that investigated the January 6 attack, said: “We know when Donald Trump says something – whether it’s in a tweet or in a speech – his supporters listen.

“That’s what we saw on January 6. His tweet – ‘Be there. Will be wild!’ – led to a rise in activity online that led people to organise and come to DC on January 6. When Trump uses this incendiary language, it’s concerning.”

Trump again referred to immigrants in the country illegally in subhuman terms. “In some cases they’re not people, in my opinion,” he said. “But I’m not allowed to say that because the radical left says that’s a terrible thing to say. These are animals, OK, and we have to stop it.”

Ziblatt added: “No matter what happens there will be some effort to deny the results of the election if he loses. My best-case scenario is a decisive defeat so that his claims of a stolen election are just simply not credible. But if it’s close, as it seems like all indicators suggest, then I would expect violence and threats of violence.

Larry Jacobs, director of the Center for the Study of Politics and Governance at the University of Minnesota, said: “Donald Trump is engaged in a misinformation campaign both to raise the expectation of his supporters that he is going to win, he’s ahead, it’s in the bag, and also to set the conditions for claiming that the election was stolen if he doesn’t win. Obviously, these polls are far out and not predictive but he’s clearly using them now to set the conditions.
Charlie Kirk, a far-right political influencer, told an audience at a faith-based event last week: “I want to make sure that we all make a commitment that if this election doesn’t go our way, the next day we fight. It’s a very important thing; a lot of people don’t want to hear that. They say, ‘What do you mean it doesn’t go our way? It has to go our way. We have to win.’ I agree.”

Bill Galston, a senior fellow at the Brookings Institution thinktank in Washington and former policy adviser to President Bill Clinton, added: “What I fear is that the repetition of violent rhetoric will lead to the normalisation of violent acts. There’s no sugarcoating it. This is a dangerous period for American constitutional government.

“In the end, the institutions are no better or worse than the men and women who are sworn to defend them and, if they do their duty, we’ll be OK. If they’re stormed, or if they’re paralysed by fear, then there’s a chance that they would not hold. It’s more likely than not that it won’t happen but this election will be the ultimate stress test.”

Ezra Levin, co-founder and co-executive director of Indivisible, a progressive grassroots movement, said: “Trump is already spreading lies that this election is rigged and we know there is no realistic scenario where he concedes after losing.

“One big difference between his loss this year and 2020 is this time they’re better prepared and have already gone through a dress rehearsal. But the other big difference is he’s won’t be a sitting president – he’ll just be a sore loser who the nation rejected in record numbers two elections in a row.”
Trump is the biggest groomer of all. For years now he’s groomed his followers and has gotten them comfortable with fascism. No longer do his followers bat an eye to the crazy authoritarian things he does every single day.
Salute Jan 6 hostages? Applause
Praise Putin? Cheer
Bash long time American allies? Hells yah
Talk about police beating the **** out of fellow Americans and mass deportations of immigrants? Laughs
Describe fellow human being as vermin and talk about poisoning the “blood of the country?” Applause
Imprisoning political opponents and media? Cheer
Bloodbath? Huge cheer

It’s disgusting
 
You know what would really stick it to us? If you stopped posting in the general forum. If we make fun of dead children then you really shouldn’t associate yourself with such awful people. It would really really show us up if you stopped posting here.
 
Of course Trump is being prosecuted for political reasons; he tried to overturn election results in Georgia, he incited an insurrection on Jan 6, and he lied about keeping classified documents. All of this involves politics when he was the leader of the executive branch. And of course we shouldn’t even allow the possibility of such a criminal to be elected to the White House again. Overthrowing election results and attempting an insurrection should have consequences.

It’s also cute that your pollster refers to the DOJ as “Biden’s DOJ” and “Biden’s IRS.” Definitely gives the impression that they’re neutral on this matter. I wonder why your pollster didn’t go into depth about Trump’s attempts to overturn election results in Georgia, incited an insurrection on Jan 6, or his fraud cases? Why did they omit questions about those specific subjects?
 
Trump in 2016 had strong feelings about protecting classified info:

“One of the first things we must do is to enforce all classification rules and to enforce all laws relating to the handling of classified information,” he said in September 2016. Speaking in July of that year, Trump said Clinton’s mishandling “disqualifies” her from public service.

Why shouldn’t he be disqualified from public service?
 

Earlier this week, the Republican Study Committee, the largest GOP caucus in the House of Representatives, released its proposed budgetfor the coming fiscal year. It includes longtime conservative wish list items like raising the Social Security retirement age for younger Americans, reducing benefits for younger high-income earners, and converting Medicare into a voucher-style “premium support” program.

When it comes to Social Security and Medicare, Republicans just can’t help themselves. Even after years of attempted cuts have backfired, they continue to attempt to sabotage the popular entitlement programs — and in doing so sabotage themselves. The RSC, which counts Speaker Mike Johnson, R-La., among its members alongside nearly 80% of House Republicans, insists these changes are necessary to save the programs. Not only is that false, but the RSC proposal is a massive political error, handing President Joe Biden a jewel of an issue to run on ahead of Election Day.



Why do republicans hate working class Americans? Why do they want to eliminate programs like social security and Medicaid? Why do they want to give billionaires tax cuts while forcing working class Americans to work longer, harder, and with fewer social safety programs? republcians are the party of the rich by the rich.

A vote for Trump is a vote to give rich people and elites handouts. A vote for Biden is a vote for regular hard working Americans.
 

I actually kind of agree with shapiro here. Problem is that many people at the age of 65 are going to have a hard time continuing to work at their job for much longer than that. I know three co workers who are planning to retire this year. 2 of them can barely get around and are pretty crappy workers who shouldn't even be employed here. The other one could definitely continue working as he is physically and mentally fit.
The real problem is our country does a **** job of preparing for an aging population. Most other developed nations have readily available and fully covered health care that doesn't bankrupt people and pension or retirement systems that can at the very least provide for the basic necessities without the elderly needing to decide between medicine, food, or heat.
 
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