Kansas Crimson

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:35 pm In the last few days:

"Jeb Bush got us into the Middle East."

"Joe Biden is going to get us into World War II"

"Windmills are making whales batty."

"I'm up in the polls against Obama."

Trump confused, says Jeb Bush got us into the middle east.

The prospect of another Trump term is the greatest foreseeable disaster that can befall the United States and the world. Trump is likely to be 10 times more dangerous this time around, because he won’t allow any adults in the White House to act as a check on his worst instincts — no more Jim Mattis as defense secretary, John F. Kelly as chief of staff or H.R. McMaster as national security adviser. In a second term, Trump is likely to only appoint advisers as unhinged as he is.

We can only speculate what this will mean, but the likelihood is that Trump will cut off aid to Ukraine, pull out of NATO, eviscerate the civil service and the military’s top ranks, and appoint an attorney general who will prosecute his enemies. For a start. He was eager to do all of those things in his first term but was dissuaded or blocked by the “deep state.” He’s unlikely to allow that to happen again. He has become even more radical and more authoritarian since leaving office, and he now has much more experience in getting what he wants out of the government.

The consequences will be dire enough domestically, imperiling U.S. democracy, but they will be even worse internationally. Among other alarming consequences, a Trump presidency could allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to defeat Ukraine and remake the 21st-century global order in favor of tyrants and aggressors.

So how do we stop Trump? Biden is a feeble vessel at best, but he’s the only realistic option we have. It’s true that he is 80 years old (and would be 82 at the start of a new term), and he often stumbles rhetorically and sometimes physically. But his successful performance in office belies his doddering image.

He has managed to pass big, bipartisan bills, including infrastructure legislation that Trump only talked about. He has been even more impressive internationally, assembling a large coalition to oppose Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and another coalition in East Asia to deter China from aggression of its own. The economy — the ultimate barometer of a president’s performance — has been doing much better than expected, with low unemployment, declining inflation and no recession in sight. That’s a record any president can be proud of. Yet the polls haven’t been giving Biden the credit he is due, possibly because perceptions of the economy still lag the reality.

[...]

We had better hope that popular perceptions of the economy improve … and that a likely Trump conviction might dissuade swing voters from supporting him … and that a third-party candidate won’t split the anti-Trump vote … and that Biden doesn’t experience any Mitch McConnell-like freeze-ups or other health scares. Otherwise, come November 2024, we might be facing the end of the world as we know it.

You can see why I’m not feeling good about the future — not when the fate of the world depends on the vitality and vigor of an octogenarian who looks his age. But it does.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:44 pm

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:35 pm In the last few days:

"Jeb Bush got us into the Middle East."

"Joe Biden is going to get us into World War II"

"Windmills are making whales batty."

"I'm up in the polls against Obama."

Trump confused, says Jeb Bush got us into the middle east.

All of the age and capacity stuff is a distraction - a very intentional distraction - from the central point here: the country would be substantially better off with a literal vegetable in the big chair than Trump.

From Max Boot, far from a dyed-in-the-wool commie:

Opinion If you want to save democracy in 2024, Biden is the only viable choice

https://www.washingtonpost.com/opinions ... democracy/

The prospect of another Trump term is the greatest foreseeable disaster that can befall the United States and the world. Trump is likely to be 10 times more dangerous this time around, because he won’t allow any adults in the White House to act as a check on his worst instincts — no more Jim Mattis as defense secretary, John F. Kelly as chief of staff or H.R. McMaster as national security adviser. In a second term, Trump is likely to only appoint advisers as unhinged as he is.

We can only speculate what this will mean, but the likelihood is that Trump will cut off aid to Ukraine, pull out of NATO, eviscerate the civil service and the military’s top ranks, and appoint an attorney general who will prosecute his enemies. For a start. He was eager to do all of those things in his first term but was dissuaded or blocked by the “deep state.” He’s unlikely to allow that to happen again. He has become even more radical and more authoritarian since leaving office, and he now has much more experience in getting what he wants out of the government.

The consequences will be dire enough domestically, imperiling U.S. democracy, but they will be even worse internationally. Among other alarming consequences, a Trump presidency could allow Russian leader Vladimir Putin to defeat Ukraine and remake the 21st-century global order in favor of tyrants and aggressors.

So how do we stop Trump? Biden is a feeble vessel at best, but he’s the only realistic option we have. It’s true that he is 80 years old (and would be 82 at the start of a new term), and he often stumbles rhetorically and sometimes physically. But his successful performance in office belies his doddering image.

He has managed to pass big, bipartisan bills, including infrastructure legislation that Trump only talked about. He has been even more impressive internationally, assembling a large coalition to oppose Russia’s war of aggression in Ukraine and another coalition in East Asia to deter China from aggression of its own. The economy — the ultimate barometer of a president’s performance — has been doing much better than expected, with low unemployment, declining inflation and no recession in sight. That’s a record any president can be proud of. Yet the polls haven’t been giving Biden the credit he is due, possibly because perceptions of the economy still lag the reality.

[...]

We had better hope that popular perceptions of the economy improve … and that a likely Trump conviction might dissuade swing voters from supporting him … and that a third-party candidate won’t split the anti-Trump vote … and that Biden doesn’t experience any Mitch McConnell-like freeze-ups or other health scares. Otherwise, come November 2024, we might be facing the end of the world as we know it.

You can see why I’m not feeling good about the future — not when the fate of the world depends on the vitality and vigor of an octogenarian who looks his age. But it does.

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:44 pm From Max Boot, far from a dyed-in-the-wool commie:

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:19 pm

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:44 pm From Max Boot, far from a dyed-in-the-wool commie:

Umm....

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:38 pm Ideologically, anyway!

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:58 pm

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:19 pm

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 4:44 pm From Max Boot, far from a dyed-in-the-wool commie:

Umm....

jfish26 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 8:38 pm Ideologically, anyway!

Dear diary, I swear, I considered replying to jfish's "Max Boot" post not long after he made it with:

jfish26, in my experience it is problematic to be so bold as to characterize someone popularly thought of as "conservative"*, (or a variation thereof), as so here, lest you risk being corrected by the only person I know of to possess the membership list, DC.


*Names that come to mind other than Max Boot, include, but are not limited to, David Frum, and, if memory serves, David French.

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 9:43 pm But by all means, set me straight.


Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld come to mind.

DCHawk1 wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 10:05 pm

Shirley wrote: ↑Mon Sep 25, 2023 9:43 pm But by all means, set me straight.


Wolfowitz, Cheney, Rumsfeld come to mind.

A. Story of my life.
B. The two surviving members of that trio fully support your position on Ukraine. Indeed, American policy in Ukraine is very much a reinterpretation of the Wolfowitz Doctrine. Congrats.

Shirley wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 1:23 pm This is the GOP.

"Does anyone see a VP in that group? I don't think so" - Donald Trump

KUTradition wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 1:34 pm kerry lake, come on down

Shirley wrote: ↑Thu Sep 28, 2023 9:09 pm One of these things isn't like the other