Trump.

[Dinner]

https://www.nbcnews.com/politics/don...riot-rcna99437

So... A nobody unpaid volunteer?

[Jon Miller]

For those interested in reality the court found that the DOJ needs to actually follow the constitution and that means principal officers have to be nominated by the president and confirmed by the Senate. None of that was done with Jack Smith. Furthermore, the DOJ has been illegally diverting funds earmarked for a special counsel but Congress had repealed the law authorizing special counsels. So the law the DOJ used to justify appointing Jack Smith doesn't even exist because Congress repealed it

A completely unlawful partisan witch hunt from start to finish.

https://www.youtube.com/live/skjEOLB...LXtfS4xR2iONlm

Except many other courts have already ruled on this and found the opposite. So, the court was making up new precedents while not being the Supreme Court. Yes, Thomas wants to change precedent. But it isn't changed yet.

JM

[Geronimo]

Except many other courts have already ruled on this and found the opposite. So, the court was making up new precedents while not being the Supreme Court. Yes, Thomas wants to change precedent. But it isn't changed yet.

JM

It's definitely a problem if this wasn't part of the normal appeal process and the judge's decision overturned precedent determined by a superior court.

[Dinner]

Except many other courts have already ruled on this and found the opposite. So, the court was making up new precedents while not being the Supreme Court. Yes, Thomas wants to change precedent. But it isn't changed yet.

JM

I agree that it will eventually end up in the supreme Court as usually happens when different courts reach contradictory rulings. I am fine with that as it is the system working as designed.

[BeBMan]

Trump gets tough on China...well, the one he's allied with:

https://www.theguardian.com/business/article/2024/jul/18/chip-stocks-trump-taiwan-defence-semiconductor

[Uncle Sparky]

Many US allies are not looking forward to another Trump presidency. North Korea, Russia, China, and, oddly, Israel welcome Trump.

On an unrelated note, does anyone know if Bulgaria still makes umbrellas?

[Geronimo]

<snip>

[Geronimo]

CBS and BBC have interviewed school mates and teachers. The picture seems to be a very conservative, good student, who always held conservative beliefs in civic classes, who failed at making the shooting team at school (seriously, America?), member of an exclusive shooting club (family membership, suggesting they may be upper middle class or higher). His dad legally bought the gun about 6 months earlier. The kid bought the bullets earlier that day.
Maybe you can be both conservative and anti fascist?​

what definition of fascist do you use?

[Uncle Sparky]

What definition of 'use' do you use?

[Geronimo]

I don't think Trump will necessarily win. Harris could beat him I think. In fact I think Trump is so good at offending everyone that there is plenty of time for Harris to beat him by a large margin. I have to concede that I don't really understand why she polls so low however. As a prosecutor in California she was far more effective at getting violent offenders in jail and keeping them there than the vast majority of her Californian peers. Her brief bid for presidency 2016 apparently revealed low charisma and tendency make unflattering gaffes and her vice presidential record will surely suffer from perceptions of her failure as Biden's "border tsar" but I think this could all be overcome by a plurality of voters not wanting to allow Trump to have a second term.

[Jon Miller]

I also think Harris could beat Trump. A lot of the Never Trumpers and the Left would end up pulling the lever for the Democratic candidate unless given a good reason not to. I think.

The problem with Harris was her campaign (which is a big problem). I hope if she was selected that she would be humble enough to accept DNC/Biden help to have a good campaign.

JM

[My Wife Hates CIV]

The problem with just pulling the lever for anything but Trump is that it has not worked out so well with that thinking. Just pulling the lever is why dems are where they are now... and why a lot of people are not better off today. Trump may be trump... but your bank account matters.

[Lorizael]

We are mostly better off today. Unemployment is low, inflation rates have come down (and came down faster here than in most of the rest of the world post-pandemic), the stock market is up, we've virtually stopped our drone war against brown people (if not having blood on your hands is one of the things you care about), violent crime rates have mostly decreased from the surge during the pandemic, a bunch of consumer and labor protections were implemented, oil production is up, gun legislation actually got passed, a bunch of student loan debt was forgiven (hmm, what's that, are those the wrong bank accounts?), etc. It's true that women lost their bodily autonomy under Biden, but I'm not sure he deserves the blame for that one.

[Jon Miller]

The problem with just pulling the lever for anything but Trump is that it has not worked out so well with that thinking. Just pulling the lever is why dems are where they are now... and why a lot of people are not better off today. Trump may be trump... but your bank account matters.

I think most people are better off than they were in 2020.

And there are all the other things to. If you sacrifice freedom to get wealth, you will soon end up with neither.

JM

[Geronimo]

I would also like to add that while Biden has been worse for inflation, inflation is also a lagging indicator and Trump pushed more new unfunded spending and new tariffs through than any previous Republican. Both presidents played an important role in setting the stage for the inflation that has occurred and that should be looked at even more closely than who presided over the inflation itself.

[Geronimo]

I think most people are better off than they were in 2020.

And there are all the other things to. If you sacrifice freedom to get wealth, you will soon end up with neither.

JM

which candidate will take more freedom? specifically which freedoms will be lost and who will lose them?

[Geronimo]

I also am very annoyed by the phrase "make America great again!" because it's almost impossible to find an objective measure by which America was greater before Trump ran for office than it was when he ran for office that you could reasonably expect most people to accept as a valid measure of "greatness". one more thing to annoy us about Trump.

[ricketyclik]

I always took it as restoring white male privilege. Measurable by comparing white male unemployment rates with other unemployment rates? Or average wages?