I am sure many progressives are mad that he didn't dunk on either McConnell or DeSantis. We seem to forget that Biden's behavior today was the norm 20 years ago.
Considering 25%ish of the American voters live in a fact-free bubble that has claimed we're living in semi-Armageddon, there was no chaos from '17 to '20...nothing but kicking ass and taking names (that they didn't know who to send them to.)
Hasn't the issue always been independent and swing voters? Has there been a president elected in the modern era without some support outside of his own party?
Spot on! Even if a Biden backed initiative doesn't turn out exactly as intended, I think the American people, as a whole (we'll ignore the mouth-breathers with their red hats) know Joe has their best interests at heart and trust him to do the best he can for all Americans, not just Democrats.
I think that one word - Trust - sums up Joe's most electable trait. I trust Joe Biden to do the best he can for us and I trust Joe Biden to surround himself with knowledgeable advisors and heed their input. He's not going off an "Only I can fix this" or "I know more about Isis than the generals do" rant.
When you add Bidenomics, Abortion and Trump, you bet it will matter enough for the suburbanites and the Independents to vote for Biden over Trump. It worked in 2020 and it's going to work again in 2024
Yes, and... His economic policies are actually working, but they've got to sell it and convince people: unemployment down, inflation down, new manufacturing jobs, plus success on things people have been trying to get for years on infrastructure, prescription drugs, and climate change. I was a skeptic but he has been remarkably successful.
Smart points. Biden's term, coming as we crawled out of the pandemic, presented complex economic and other challenges. Both Biden and the Fed have so far done a great job. Unemployment has remained very low, wages have grown (albeit not enough) , and the markets have remained solid. As you point out, Biden& Ds got very important business done to help this country- e.g., the Inflation Reduction Act and infrastructure spending. Ds never do an adequate job of touting their achievements .
46% of those in the recent WSJ Poll would agree with you, Chris, that while Uncle Joe may be old, he's absolutely a decent guy.
46% of those in the recent WSJ Poll would offer:
"Decency! Decency! We don't need no stinkin' decency, when the Marxist, Communist, Fascist, Social Security/Medicare hugging, pablum eating, toothpick legged, lunatic leader of the worst American crime family is ruining our fare country!"
8% of those in the recent WSJ Poll are still up in the air about whether to vote for (wait for it) a:
~ descent man offering a steady hand on the economy and who reestablished strong foreign ties, albeit he is old.
OR
~ twice impeached, four time feloniously indicted, convicted rapist, who, while equally as old, wants to put his political enemies in jail on any charge he chooses.
I certainly share your concerns about our country. But it is worth noting that the Trump-style leader is in vogue in several other countries. Consider the years of Berlusconi in Italy or the current situation in Israel with Bibi. There's also Orban in Hungary and the rise of the right in Germany. Authoritarianism or fascism is on the rise worldwide.
The polls may be saying they are tied now, I am confident that when people actually go to vote, they will choose the decent guy over the corrupt and twice impeached and criminally indicted one
Afternoon, Dr I. You're not wrong. My overwhelming concern is that lukewarm Biden supporters may get discouraged by some minor incident in October 2024 along similar lines as Jim Comey's Hillary's email surprise in October 2016.
Consider this hypothetical: October 20 2024, Joe Biden notices a small amount of blood
when he moves his bowels. A colonoscopy is performed on October 22 and 3 small (<1 cm, 1/2") polyps are removed. By Halloween, pathology indicates they are non-cancerous. Meanwhile, Trump and his cast of ghouls have been beating the Joe's Gonna Die Now/President Kamala Harris drum for 10 days.
How does that affect voter turnout on both sides of the aisle?
Others have made the point, but it says a great deal about this country that President Biden is going to struggle to get reelected against a twice-impeached, four times-indicted former President.
I miss the good old days when politics were put aside to face any hardships with one voice, one nation. Decency is in very short supplies unfortunately.
Oh, I'm a bit less generous than you are, Chris! I know EXACTLY when that happened: when Trump came down that gold elevator in 2015 and announced his candidacy. He took the grumbling that the Far Right had about "The Black Man" being President, amplified it, and made it "acceptable" to say your racist views out loud. Sure, we had our divisions, but Trump took advantage of them and pushed us further apart than ever. I put this ALL right at his feet.
And now that "Trumpism" is a thing (and supported by secondary characters like DeSantis and Ramaswamy, and a ton of Rs in the States), even when Trump is gone (as in "dead and gone", as that's literally the ONLY way we'll be rid of his festering presence on the political scene), we'll still be dealing with this division.
I don't know that there's truly ANYTHING that will ever take us back to being a single nation again...
You are right about Trump exploiting that chasm, but it existed before him. If not him, someone else would have played that role. Current issues in our society today have deep roots.
Lee Atwater running Bush 41's (aka Shrub, the Less Vile) 1988 campaign and the whole Willie Horton thing. Referring to Dukakis, Atwater declared that he would "strip the bark off the little bastard" and "make Willie Horton his running mate". That was the beginning of the GOP "Victory at any Cost" mindset.
Oddly enough, it seems blue collar werking class republicans xannot acknowledge Biden is helping them instead of hurting. They will take economic hardship over progress anytime....it s historically grounded.
Why let Black people set money aside for roads, schools or healthcare, when they get a chance?.
The clear distinction between a sociopath and a decent human being can be illustrated by two separate actions-
1. Trump's brother was in the hospital dying and Trump went to the movies.
2. Biden, after eulogizing Officer Rafael Ramos, offered his condolences to the family of Wenjian Liu — the second of two city cops assassinated last weekend. Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, sat with the officer's widow and other relatives before earning his embrace from Liu's distraught father.
What "regime"? You are entering vocabulary that is soooo out of place. Parroting MTG and the likes...Biden is the president and if you don t agree, vote in 2024...
He seems to locked into parroting Putin from his homeland. At least Yuri is the genuine Putin Autocratic lover compared to his ideological comrades in the MAGA ReTrumplican'ts wing.
I appreciate the reply, Ian. I figured it out shortly after I had posted that question. I'm kinda sure the "Mute This User" option was available on the post as well as their profile in an earlier iteration of Substack.
Not at all, Jim. This troll is not worth the effort of a reply. It didn't take long to figure out who/what he was, and as soon as I did, I blocked him. For some reason, I still see his comments, but I guess that he can't see mine (thankfully).
Interesting. I am, however, considering unmuting him.
It was people not calling out Trump early on as well as cable news donating 10s of hours of free advertising in the form of airing his hate-fest rallies with neither comment nor pushback that helped elect the Mango Miscreant.
I feel we must call out liars at every chance and in that light the internet is a target rich environment.
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing". I refuse to do nothing.
Jim, I don't find fault at all with your view. My issue is that "Yuri Bezmenov" (as someone else noted, that isn't even who this troll is, seeing as the real Yuri Bezmenov died 30 years ago) isn't a real person. He's likely a Russian bot/troll, posting here to get people riled up with false moral equivalencies, etc. He never contributes anything of substance, only ad hominem attacks on anyone who opposes the Republicans.
How decent of you to call someone sharing a different opinion an ass-clown. Block all information you don't like, great way to improve your understanding of the world.
The last thing anyone needs is the "opinions" of a likely paid Russian troll. If you've got nothing to add to the conversation, and truly you don't, why not just be quiet?
I'm reminded of an Abraham Lincoln quote that you would do well to live by: "Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
Quite decent of you to ignore the families of soldiers who were killed thanks to this administration's incompetency. The New York Post is the country's oldest newspaper and was censored for breaking the Hunter Biden Laptop story.
You know Trump negotiated that Afghan withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and ignored the Afghani government. You know Biden had no other option than comply with it. The consequences of breaking that agreement would had been far worse.
You're a malignant little toady, spreading lies. And again, you are not worth hearing from.
I remember the chaos of the exit from Saigon too. That's the nature of war unfortunately. The fault is on Biden, but rather on the terrorists who committed the atrocity.
And keep in mind that the exit was negotiated by Trump with the Taliban and never did include the Afghan govt at the time- now that was incompetence.
Chris, it speaks to the quality of your character that you haven't blocked Yuri from posting. Sure he may disagree with EVERYTHING you write, but you still allow his voice to be heard. Bravo! The whole point of our democratic experiment is hear multiple sides of a argument and then make informed decisions for ourselves.
I'm not here for attention, I'm here to marvel at the cognitive dissonance of commenters who spew hatred about anything that falls outside of the MSM narrative you continue to feed them. Imagine how they would react if Trump was president when the Afghanistan disaster occurred. Perhaps you can join the great substack debates! https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/great-substack-debates-matchups
That's very true, Chris, but I feel obligated to point out that those who remained silent in the face of Trump's lies in 2015-16 bear a huge share of the responsibility for that monstrous clown getting elected.
The time to take down Trump was 2015, not 2021 or 2024.
The New York Post was once a respected newspaper, but that was many years ago. Now it's got the credibility of FOX Noise. As the saying goes, it's not fit to wrap fish in.
Oh, and you can drop the "censored" argument which has been debunked.
You know Trump negotiated that Afghan withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and you know Biden had no other option than comply with it. The consequences of breaking that agreement would had been far worse.
You're a malignant little toady, spreading anti-American lies.
Biden is a decent human being, he is caring, compassionate, empathetic, all solid traits. He may do things that some don’t agree with, however, that is politics. Praying that that is enough to get him reelected. Would I have preferred Joe step aside? Yes. However, he is running, barring any catastrophic issue, and am fully behind him.
I sincerely hope and want to believen the American people will choose to elect a leader they May not agree with, but waard stewardship of the nation because he is, generally, a good guy ..flawed, yes, human, yes, ill willed, no, out only for himself , no... let s go with that and decide after four years again... me thinks the US will be a bettet place then, but if you are in fout, the US will CERTAINLY be worse place. The flag for being a beaken of democracy may go half staff..
As much as I wanten to go and live in the US 30 years ago, I cannot even imagine Just visiting ..in the formeren guy's words....SO SAD!!
Hans, from a previous post you let us know you're Dutch.
Sadly, America is no longer the country living up to your parents' view of the post-WW2 United States.
Too many people in our nation have become much more self-absorbed, less community-minded and less interested in placing external needs over personal ones.
The fact that American voters less than 20 years ago elected an articulate, smart, thoughtful Black man with positive visions as president, yet less than 8 years ago elected an inarticulate, ignorant, self-centered, nihilistic sociopath offers a sad commentary on a country that is supposedly the bedrock of the democratic spirit of the Shining City on the Hill.
I think President Biden is a decent man,albeit a bit slower than before.
On the other hand, every time I hear Trump and his crazy ravings, I think of various Fascist and authoritarian leaders throughout Europe. It is frightening to think that we could wind up with a leader like that in the USA.
I pray folks open their eyes before November, 2024!
I know there are doubting thomases out there but I believe in my heart of hearts that President Biden is going to defeat Donald Trump in 2024. Donald Trump is undoubtedly going to continue to cry election interference after the defeat again but few people will listen to him and he will continue to fade away into oblivion. Some may say wishful thinking but you watch
I am sure many progressives are mad that he didn't dunk on either McConnell or DeSantis. We seem to forget that Biden's behavior today was the norm 20 years ago.
Probably true, Edward. But my guess is that they are going to be for him no matter what. The issue is those independent and swing voters...
We have already forgotten the chaos of 2017-2020. Normalcy is already boring.
Considering 25%ish of the American voters live in a fact-free bubble that has claimed we're living in semi-Armageddon, there was no chaos from '17 to '20...nothing but kicking ass and taking names (that they didn't know who to send them to.)
Hasn't the issue always been independent and swing voters? Has there been a president elected in the modern era without some support outside of his own party?
Spot on! Even if a Biden backed initiative doesn't turn out exactly as intended, I think the American people, as a whole (we'll ignore the mouth-breathers with their red hats) know Joe has their best interests at heart and trust him to do the best he can for all Americans, not just Democrats.
I think that one word - Trust - sums up Joe's most electable trait. I trust Joe Biden to do the best he can for us and I trust Joe Biden to surround himself with knowledgeable advisors and heed their input. He's not going off an "Only I can fix this" or "I know more about Isis than the generals do" rant.
That will the test of the next year plus, Jim. I DO think the trust and character stuff does matter. But I don't know if it matters enough.
When you add Bidenomics, Abortion and Trump, you bet it will matter enough for the suburbanites and the Independents to vote for Biden over Trump. It worked in 2020 and it's going to work again in 2024
Yes, and... His economic policies are actually working, but they've got to sell it and convince people: unemployment down, inflation down, new manufacturing jobs, plus success on things people have been trying to get for years on infrastructure, prescription drugs, and climate change. I was a skeptic but he has been remarkably successful.
Smart points. Biden's term, coming as we crawled out of the pandemic, presented complex economic and other challenges. Both Biden and the Fed have so far done a great job. Unemployment has remained very low, wages have grown (albeit not enough) , and the markets have remained solid. As you point out, Biden& Ds got very important business done to help this country- e.g., the Inflation Reduction Act and infrastructure spending. Ds never do an adequate job of touting their achievements .
Re: Decency vs. Sociopathy
46% of those in the recent WSJ Poll would agree with you, Chris, that while Uncle Joe may be old, he's absolutely a decent guy.
46% of those in the recent WSJ Poll would offer:
"Decency! Decency! We don't need no stinkin' decency, when the Marxist, Communist, Fascist, Social Security/Medicare hugging, pablum eating, toothpick legged, lunatic leader of the worst American crime family is ruining our fare country!"
8% of those in the recent WSJ Poll are still up in the air about whether to vote for (wait for it) a:
~ descent man offering a steady hand on the economy and who reestablished strong foreign ties, albeit he is old.
OR
~ twice impeached, four time feloniously indicted, convicted rapist, who, while equally as old, wants to put his political enemies in jail on any charge he chooses.
"AMERICA, WHAT A COUNTRY! (???)"
I certainly share your concerns about our country. But it is worth noting that the Trump-style leader is in vogue in several other countries. Consider the years of Berlusconi in Italy or the current situation in Israel with Bibi. There's also Orban in Hungary and the rise of the right in Germany. Authoritarianism or fascism is on the rise worldwide.
The polls may be saying they are tied now, I am confident that when people actually go to vote, they will choose the decent guy over the corrupt and twice impeached and criminally indicted one
Afternoon, Dr I. You're not wrong. My overwhelming concern is that lukewarm Biden supporters may get discouraged by some minor incident in October 2024 along similar lines as Jim Comey's Hillary's email surprise in October 2016.
Consider this hypothetical: October 20 2024, Joe Biden notices a small amount of blood
when he moves his bowels. A colonoscopy is performed on October 22 and 3 small (<1 cm, 1/2") polyps are removed. By Halloween, pathology indicates they are non-cancerous. Meanwhile, Trump and his cast of ghouls have been beating the Joe's Gonna Die Now/President Kamala Harris drum for 10 days.
How does that affect voter turnout on both sides of the aisle?
Others have made the point, but it says a great deal about this country that President Biden is going to struggle to get reelected against a twice-impeached, four times-indicted former President.
Ian, I think that is a very, very good -- if daunting -- point.
Common decency gets drowned out by loudmouthed bullies
I miss the good old days when politics were put aside to face any hardships with one voice, one nation. Decency is in very short supplies unfortunately.
Somewhere along the way, we lost our common humanity and common decency. I am not sure when or how that happened.
Oh, I'm a bit less generous than you are, Chris! I know EXACTLY when that happened: when Trump came down that gold elevator in 2015 and announced his candidacy. He took the grumbling that the Far Right had about "The Black Man" being President, amplified it, and made it "acceptable" to say your racist views out loud. Sure, we had our divisions, but Trump took advantage of them and pushed us further apart than ever. I put this ALL right at his feet.
And now that "Trumpism" is a thing (and supported by secondary characters like DeSantis and Ramaswamy, and a ton of Rs in the States), even when Trump is gone (as in "dead and gone", as that's literally the ONLY way we'll be rid of his festering presence on the political scene), we'll still be dealing with this division.
I don't know that there's truly ANYTHING that will ever take us back to being a single nation again...
You are right about Trump exploiting that chasm, but it existed before him. If not him, someone else would have played that role. Current issues in our society today have deep roots.
Trump has contributed immensely to the current venomous political environment, no doubt.
Lee Atwater running Bush 41's (aka Shrub, the Less Vile) 1988 campaign and the whole Willie Horton thing. Referring to Dukakis, Atwater declared that he would "strip the bark off the little bastard" and "make Willie Horton his running mate". That was the beginning of the GOP "Victory at any Cost" mindset.
Or, perhaps more importantly, how to get it back.
Oddly enough, it seems blue collar werking class republicans xannot acknowledge Biden is helping them instead of hurting. They will take economic hardship over progress anytime....it s historically grounded.
Why let Black people set money aside for roads, schools or healthcare, when they get a chance?.
Let s all be poor !!!
The clear distinction between a sociopath and a decent human being can be illustrated by two separate actions-
1. Trump's brother was in the hospital dying and Trump went to the movies.
2. Biden, after eulogizing Officer Rafael Ramos, offered his condolences to the family of Wenjian Liu — the second of two city cops assassinated last weekend. Biden, accompanied by his wife Jill, sat with the officer's widow and other relatives before earning his embrace from Liu's distraught father.
https://www.nydailynews.com/resizer/HSf0USoDYhaDkVJvJF8KkWq1PdA=/1024x0/filters:format(jpg):quality(70)/arc-anglerfish-arc2-prod-tronc.s3.amazonaws.com/public/CY7PSWQ63ZDSRZLNSJI4EX4XFA.jpg
My apologies to all for typos. Auto-correction sucks, when Dutch and attempting to White (see) write in English
Ask the families of the 13 soldiers killed in the disastrous 2021 Afghanistan collapse about Joe's "decency": https://nypost.com/2023/08/29/gold-star-families-rip-biden-over-kabul-airport-blast/
You don't work for CNN anymore, so you don't have to keep bootlicking for the regime ;)
What "regime"? You are entering vocabulary that is soooo out of place. Parroting MTG and the likes...Biden is the president and if you don t agree, vote in 2024...
He seems to locked into parroting Putin from his homeland. At least Yuri is the genuine Putin Autocratic lover compared to his ideological comrades in the MAGA ReTrumplican'ts wing.
Does anyone know how to block people on the app? This Yuri ass-clown is makes me sick.
Jim, go to their profile and once you do, you should see "three dots" next to their name. Click on that. It's what I did with this Russian troll.
I appreciate the reply, Ian. I figured it out shortly after I had posted that question. I'm kinda sure the "Mute This User" option was available on the post as well as their profile in an earlier iteration of Substack.
Be well!
Not at all, Jim. This troll is not worth the effort of a reply. It didn't take long to figure out who/what he was, and as soon as I did, I blocked him. For some reason, I still see his comments, but I guess that he can't see mine (thankfully).
Interesting. I am, however, considering unmuting him.
It was people not calling out Trump early on as well as cable news donating 10s of hours of free advertising in the form of airing his hate-fest rallies with neither comment nor pushback that helped elect the Mango Miscreant.
I feel we must call out liars at every chance and in that light the internet is a target rich environment.
"The only thing necessary for evil to triumph in the world is that good men do nothing". I refuse to do nothing.
Jim, I don't find fault at all with your view. My issue is that "Yuri Bezmenov" (as someone else noted, that isn't even who this troll is, seeing as the real Yuri Bezmenov died 30 years ago) isn't a real person. He's likely a Russian bot/troll, posting here to get people riled up with false moral equivalencies, etc. He never contributes anything of substance, only ad hominem attacks on anyone who opposes the Republicans.
How decent of you to call someone sharing a different opinion an ass-clown. Block all information you don't like, great way to improve your understanding of the world.
Considering the REAL Yuri Bezmenov died in 1993 you are obviously a troll and a propagandist - so "ass clown" seems to fit
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Yuri_Bezmenov
Your vitriol adds no understanding of anything other than the fact you're not worth hearing from.
The last thing anyone needs is the "opinions" of a likely paid Russian troll. If you've got nothing to add to the conversation, and truly you don't, why not just be quiet?
I'm reminded of an Abraham Lincoln quote that you would do well to live by: "Better to be silent and thought a fool than to speak and remove all doubt."
Everyone I don't like is a Russian troll! Your Substack reading list is a broken record of Trump hate. Suggest reading more diverse opinions.
I'd suggest you keep your opinions to yourself. And you ARE a troll, quite clearly.
Trump has earned our hatred and contempt in spades.
One of my father's favorite expressions. Typically spoken while watching the evening news.
The New York Post. <snicker>
Quite decent of you to ignore the families of soldiers who were killed thanks to this administration's incompetency. The New York Post is the country's oldest newspaper and was censored for breaking the Hunter Biden Laptop story.
You know Trump negotiated that Afghan withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and ignored the Afghani government. You know Biden had no other option than comply with it. The consequences of breaking that agreement would had been far worse.
You're a malignant little toady, spreading lies. And again, you are not worth hearing from.
TROLL-
I remember the chaos of the exit from Saigon too. That's the nature of war unfortunately. The fault is on Biden, but rather on the terrorists who committed the atrocity.
And keep in mind that the exit was negotiated by Trump with the Taliban and never did include the Afghan govt at the time- now that was incompetence.
All -- By attacking Yuri, you are giving him, what he wants: Attention.
Chris, it speaks to the quality of your character that you haven't blocked Yuri from posting. Sure he may disagree with EVERYTHING you write, but you still allow his voice to be heard. Bravo! The whole point of our democratic experiment is hear multiple sides of a argument and then make informed decisions for ourselves.
I'm not here for attention, I'm here to marvel at the cognitive dissonance of commenters who spew hatred about anything that falls outside of the MSM narrative you continue to feed them. Imagine how they would react if Trump was president when the Afghanistan disaster occurred. Perhaps you can join the great substack debates! https://yuribezmenov.substack.com/p/great-substack-debates-matchups
The Afghan exodus debacle is solely Trump's failing and you know that.
That's very true, Chris, but I feel obligated to point out that those who remained silent in the face of Trump's lies in 2015-16 bear a huge share of the responsibility for that monstrous clown getting elected.
The time to take down Trump was 2015, not 2021 or 2024.
The New York Post was once a respected newspaper, but that was many years ago. Now it's got the credibility of FOX Noise. As the saying goes, it's not fit to wrap fish in.
Oh, and you can drop the "censored" argument which has been debunked.
You know Trump negotiated that Afghan withdrawal agreement with the Taliban and you know Biden had no other option than comply with it. The consequences of breaking that agreement would had been far worse.
You're a malignant little toady, spreading anti-American lies.
Biden is a decent human being, he is caring, compassionate, empathetic, all solid traits. He may do things that some don’t agree with, however, that is politics. Praying that that is enough to get him reelected. Would I have preferred Joe step aside? Yes. However, he is running, barring any catastrophic issue, and am fully behind him.
Smart piece. I hope basic decency can shine through the heaps of mud the Rs are throwing at Biden.
I sincerely hope and want to believen the American people will choose to elect a leader they May not agree with, but waard stewardship of the nation because he is, generally, a good guy ..flawed, yes, human, yes, ill willed, no, out only for himself , no... let s go with that and decide after four years again... me thinks the US will be a bettet place then, but if you are in fout, the US will CERTAINLY be worse place. The flag for being a beaken of democracy may go half staff..
As much as I wanten to go and live in the US 30 years ago, I cannot even imagine Just visiting ..in the formeren guy's words....SO SAD!!
Hans, from a previous post you let us know you're Dutch.
Sadly, America is no longer the country living up to your parents' view of the post-WW2 United States.
Too many people in our nation have become much more self-absorbed, less community-minded and less interested in placing external needs over personal ones.
The fact that American voters less than 20 years ago elected an articulate, smart, thoughtful Black man with positive visions as president, yet less than 8 years ago elected an inarticulate, ignorant, self-centered, nihilistic sociopath offers a sad commentary on a country that is supposedly the bedrock of the democratic spirit of the Shining City on the Hill.
I think President Biden is a decent man,albeit a bit slower than before.
On the other hand, every time I hear Trump and his crazy ravings, I think of various Fascist and authoritarian leaders throughout Europe. It is frightening to think that we could wind up with a leader like that in the USA.
I pray folks open their eyes before November, 2024!
I know there are doubting thomases out there but I believe in my heart of hearts that President Biden is going to defeat Donald Trump in 2024. Donald Trump is undoubtedly going to continue to cry election interference after the defeat again but few people will listen to him and he will continue to fade away into oblivion. Some may say wishful thinking but you watch
Totally agree! He is a decent man, who has also gotten legislation passed.