The people in Washington DC live in a bubble. They have no idea what it’s like out in the country, and they don’t care. I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Biden or Harris, or anyone in his cabinet can relate to any of us. The proof is in his clueless press secretary who has no shame and comes out every day with a pack of lies. Biden…
The people in Washington DC live in a bubble. They have no idea what it’s like out in the country, and they don’t care. I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Biden or Harris, or anyone in his cabinet can relate to any of us. The proof is in his clueless press secretary who has no shame and comes out every day with a pack of lies. Biden, plagiarist in chief, lies every single day. So does his wife. All of these people hate us. Their policies prove just how much they hate us. As I look over other Democrats who may want to be President in the future, there is not one who cares about the middle class. Not one of them has a policy that would actually benefit the citizens. They are beholden to the elites, the donors, the coastal states, and that’s it. If your party reveres people like the jackal, George Soros, nothing good will ever happen. I hate all of them.
Over the past 6 months I reconnected with an old friend and his family. Our daughters have been friends since kindergarten. We hadn’t seen each other much since Covid descended on us because his wife, who I am also friends with, is immune compromised and they felt unsafe around me because my I am a frontline healthcare worker and my husband is a first responder. Lately we have been spending time together again. This friend is a long time DNC campaign strategist and has gradually worked his way up in the DNC organization. He is in weekly contact with White House level staff. I believe my husband and I are some of the few regular middle/working class people they ever hang out with. They live a very luxurious life funded largely by inherited family wealth. They both drive Tesla’s, work from their laptops in a giant solar panel topped house, own multiple vacation homes, etc. They intermittently giggle about how nice it is that the high gas prices don’t really matter to them. Our lifestyles are extremely different. My husband and I work tons of overtime in incredibly stressful jobs to be able to meet our financial obligations, rarely ever go on vacation, etc. We only have one child because we can’t afford to properly care for more children. Two months ago they led me into a conversation in hopes, I guess, of finding out what a regular middle class mom thinks of how things are going since the Biden team rolled into the White House. I said “do you really want to know what I think ?” They said yes. I chose to not hold back. I told them, from every direction, how the Democratic Party’s latest policies have affected my family and other families like mine. There are no words to describe how completely out of touch these DNC elitist types are. They dismissed my concerns and blew off everything I said at lightening speed. It was just stunning. Then came all kinds of super condescending remarks about how I “just don’t understand the big picture, blah blah blah “. I said “well then, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out at the midterms”. The DNC can ignore hard working middle income families like mine at their own peril.
Pardon the leap, but have you lost your ever lovin mind? The problem, as we have already stated, is career politicians. Joe Manchin cares Nothing for the middle class, the only reason he ever went against other Demoncrats was for political expediency in his own district. That guy is corporate owned, just look in to where his financing comes from and how he votes in lock step with it. This is the kind of wilful ignorance that has gotten us to the place we are today. Giving a career politician credit for doing something that was only designed to further their career is just contributing to the delinquency.
I think you give the Washington crowd a bit too much credit. It's not that they don't KNOW what's going on outside of their enclave, it's that they don't CARE what's happening to regular citizens. That is, until election time comes, then all of a sudden our issues matter. If we could get some solid and permanent campaign finance reform instituted, that took the control of politicians out of the hands of the corporations and the wealthiest of people, we might find our way back to "by the people, for the people". If all campaign funding was controlled by government and all "donations" were put in to a "pool" that was shared with all candidates, then powerful people wouldn't be able to subversively buy influence from candidates. At that point, anyone taking money from outside parties would not be able to hide it from the voters. This, in turn, would discourage those who run for office strictly for personal gain.
Normally I would try to convince my friends or kids to have a softer, more understanding mindset about what might be fueling the government, elites, and elite media’s treatment of what’s going on but when Joe Biden and his clan make their coy references to a “fundamental transition “ going on I have to admit that this is ALL deliberate !
It’s funny…as a kid the D’s were the party of the little guy and the R’s were the party of the three martini lunch crowd. Now it’s flipped. Blacks and Hispanics are migrating to the R side. Ds represent the coastal elites with their fancy college degrees.
I think the Dems were always more the party of union bosses than the party of working people. Today it's mostly teachers and other government workers who are union members.
I don't know today's statistics but a few years ago, 1 in 8 delegates to the Democrat/Socialist National Convention were members of the teacher's union. The teachers' unions serve the teachers and don't give a damn about the quality of teaching nor the benefit of the students. The democrats take huge donations from big business while all the time railing against them. unions themselves are big business. Look at the salaries of the unions' hierarchies.
Third parties split the vote and usher in the party you don't want.
Better to vote in America First candidates and increase their numbers in the House and the Senate. Better to vote in a Republican president (it's going to be either Trump or DeSantis) who can start to clean things up.
Trump certainly has his flaws but if he could restrain his need to be a headline 24/7 he could withstand TDS. The problem is that the “swamp” is so pervasive that he’ll need to have an effective cabinet on day 1, no more idiots like Jeff Sessions or back stabbers like “Mad Dog” Mattis, Rex Tillerson or John Kelly who have their own agendas. On day one he’ll need to purge the heads and aligned flunkies at the JustUs Department and all of the Intelligence agencies who conspired to create and perpetuate the Russia, Russia, Russia hoaxes before they can organize again. Just as important, he needs to de-classify the “secrets" the swamp creatures have hid behind for decades so Americans can fully appreciate the extent of their duplicity . Once he has a solid America First team in place, he should refrain from engaging in personal attacks and instead caricature his critics with humor, a la Reagan. Hiring a good team of joke writers would be worth every penny he has to spend. God knows there’s plenty of material to work with.
I understand the reticence in supporting Trump again but despite all the TDS and the unprecedented assaults he had to endure as president, even his critics have to marvel at what he achieved. There’s no doubt he made mistakes during his first term but that’s what rookies do. Whatever else Trump is, he ain’t no dummy. And if elected again, he wouldn’t be a rookie.
"Once he has a solid America First team in place, he should refrain from engaging in personal attacks and instead caricature his critics with humor, a la Reagan."
I'm sorry to say he simply isn't capable of that. Plus past 70, health is tenuous. Biden is, of course, a textbook case of how fast cognitive decline can hit (although he was never more than mediocre, at best). Trump will be in his eighties if he were to win in '24. We can't afford to take that risk. The world is too dangerous and the enemies to America too numerous, here and abroad, to not have a vigorous, healthy leader. Trump should have cleaned out the Aegean Stable at Justice when he had the chance. Now we need a leader who will do so.
Trump should hire you as an advisor; you are correct on all counts. Easiest decision to make: dump Jared and Ivanka as advisors. Jared did a good job on the Abraham accords, but that's it. His advice, along with others, to Trump during the early stages of the pandemic, IMO, killed any chance he had at overcoming the rigged election. (I know, easy to say in retrospect.)
Trump should also figure out how to get McConnell and McCarthy out of their lead roles in the Senate and House. They are swamp creatures.
I think the overall theme would be "forget short term popularity - work to become recognized by history as the second administration to save the union (the first being Lincoln)".
Trump is not going to dump Jared and Ivanka. He loves them. They love him and he doesn't have to worry about their loyalty. They are also VERY smart people. Jared is brilliant at getting things done and doesn't have an abrasive personality. He has humility and steps back from the limelight. If you want a job done and done well Jared is the man.
It is not going to be possible to challenge McCarthy for 2022. However, if Trump continues to endorse candidates for the House and they win, then the challenge can come in 2024. I nominate Jim Jordan.
Yes, Jared probably is loyal and Trump probably does love him and Ivanka. I'm not so sure that he shouldn't worry about their loyalty. I agree that both Jared and Ivanka are very smart.
But Jared's political instincts, in line with his non-abrasive personality, are to avoid creating waves. He was central in convincing Trump to keep Fauci, Birx, and Redfeld on board even though Trump knew the right thing, not the political thing, to do was to dump them.
Perhaps Jared's role could be as a "do-er". Just don't rely on him for political strategy or advice.
I agree with you. One of Trump's short comings is his loyalty. Jeff Sessions was the very first Republican Senator to endorse him. Sessions had an illustrious record as a prosecutor in Alabama so it wasn't a bad pick on paper. Sessions is an honorable man with a strict code of personal ethics. When he gave his word about recusing himself it hamstrung him. He was also too timid. Rex Tillerson was not a politician and was in over his head. Pompeo was an excellent replacement.
Unfortunately Trump is not going to be able to ape Reagan and Reagan's charming ability to use humor to calm the situation and bring it back into perspective.
With all of Trump's personality quirks I would go down on my knees in gratitude if we could get him back into the White House now.
Trump did a great job, was unduly vilified and castigated and should be honored for that. But as an elder statesman. The inescapable fact is that he would be in his 80s if elected. That's simply unacceptable.
Trump also would be ineligible to be re-elected in 2028. I'd want a reliable conservative (like DeSantis *seems* to be) in for (hopefully) two terms to have any shot at turning this ship around. So even if I trusted Trump to follow through with good policies, he would be finished in 2028 and we need more continuity of leadership than that.
That's just his massive ego. His advisors and family need to work on him. I love Trump. Really do and respect all the good he did. But sometimes those you love embark on the wrong course and need reminding.
I really don't want Trump to run, primarily because of the TDS hangover. In addition, I believe Trump would select the same type of cabinet and administrators who hurt him terribly during his POTUS tenure.
Ah but if DeSantis runs there will be DeSantis derangement syndrome. Count on it.
The Democrats are masterful at lies. Have you seen Newsom's ad about CA vs. FL? It's hilarious. I live in Florida. The ad is a complete 180 on the truth.
I don't doubt they will go after DeSantis. But DeSantis doesn't have a lifetime of bad behavior as a NYC playboy to draw upon. And the media has already used up all the public's goodwill.
They will lie about DeSantis. But I don't think it will give them the traction that Trump did.
I agree, because DeSantis doesn't have the immature ego Trump has, who made EVERYTHING about himself. From what I've seen, DeSantis has, like Trump, the cajones to withstand the lackey media and their firehose of hate, hyperbole, and lies, but with the added strength of self control and restraint—unlike Trump who couldn't help mouthing off like a juvenile who can't let the slightest slight go by.
I wonder if DeSantis wants to put his family through the Dems despicable hate tactics that Trump’s wife and son went through, also Kavanaugh. Dems are vicious and they have no boundaries or concept of decent behavior
Hm. I replied to this, but it doesn't show. Something like this:
Naw. Most people *here* in this echo chamber. But naw. You'd like to believe people will forget, no doubt. Many believe that and convince themselves it's true. Doesn't change much tho.
Well, maybe. I grew up in NYC. My grandparents and parents were immigrants (legal). If they had issues they could go to their local Democrat and get help. It created generational loyalty.
Create a problem then offer the solution - the time worn strategy for Dems.
Most people don't know that Obama was at the origin of the 2008 meltdown. As a community organizer in the 90's in Chicago, he started a class action lawsuit against banks for not loaning to minorities. The Clinton admin strong-armed the banks to loan to unqualified applicants. This begat the mortgage derivates market which was meant to mitigate the risk of "subprime" loans, and instead networked the risk so every bank (and it was almost every bank in the US) became infected. This infection resulted in the inability of the market to value those assets, putting banks in violation of the capital requirements (since an asset that couldn't be valued was excluded from capital). This lead to a freeze on loans, since banks can only lend out what their capital can support.
So, unknowingly for sure, Obama created a problem and then became POTUS based on it.
Oh, by the way, 49% of the parties in the class action lawsuit who were "unfairly" denied loans defaulted. Gee, who could have predicted that?!?!
Obama was not the origin of the 2008 meltdown. Sure, he contributed to unqualified lending. But the center of our modern meltdowns is the central bank - i.e. Federal Reserve.
The pre-Fed era generally did not feature economy-wide meltdowns. When bank panics occurred in the 19th century (outside of the prior central banks, the first and second), you will find state-level fractional reserve banking and unjustified legal protections of that practice. But even with that, the greatest period of wealth creation in this country followed the Civil War and continued until the adoption of the Federal Reserve Act.
I don't know a lot, granted. But my understanding is that the *big* problems started happening in '95, when The Fed decided they were smart enough they could actually *control the economy.* That's how dumb they were. And if anything untoward popped up, they had all the tools to *fix* it all up. No problemo. AFAIK, they just didn't know when to *stop* fixing things.
The rest, as they say, is history. Actually, that's about all I know about it, FWIW.
I've done quite a bit of reading on this, and the economic structure that allowed the meltdown to occur is as you stated. But the trigger event is most definitely the agreement between banks and the Clinton administration in response to the Obama class action lawsuit.
Without that agreement, sub-prime loans never emerge, no risk mitigation is needed and mortgage derivatives are never developed, loan defaults don't occur, bank capital does not get hammered, and the credit market doesn't freeze.
When I was a child the Democrats represented the average Joe. Republicans were WASPS, country club types who did their best to keep immigrant kids out of the Ivy League schools.
It's all flipped. The Republican Party is becoming the blue collar party. People don't understand Trump's appeal but there it is. He speaks like a blue collar guy and understands the working middle class. Elites will never understand this.
I, too, am old enough to remember when the Democrats were (theoretically) on the side of the working class. My parents were lifelong Democrats. I grew up hanging out at the union hall while my dad was doing his duties there. I'm not sure my dad ever questioned the fact that FDR and his ilk were wealthy men using people like my family to gain political power.
Personally, I think the shift started sooner than most imagine. I think it started with LBJ's Great Society, bribing minorities (and keeping them poor), while recruiting the wealthy who wanted to appear compassionate. At the same time, the Long March through the Institutions had begun, ensuring that more and more of the most educated would come out of college on the side of the Left.
Until they came to a realization that the working class is not necessary in a world in which you can "rent" subjugated masses from places like China, Mexico, Vietnam and elsewhere world over.
They "fought for the little guy" by creating an economic monstrosity in which entire industries became so consolidated that entire markets are controlled by a few enormous entities so if there is a mishap in a baby formula factory that controls a large chink of the supply the whole thing falls apart. You know that feeling when you receive the at home COVID test from the US Govt with a quality control paper in the package in Chinese.
They further "fought for the little guy" by deciding that it was smart to place all of our eggs in the China basket so that even the most obscure shit has to be made there so that if a fuckin' ship gets stranded we are all fucked.
Complete and absolute dependency.
As a result of their famous "fight for the little guy" the big guys are bigger than ever, and Amazon will swallow all these little guys.
I think it's been pretty well established, although effectively suppressed by historians that LBJ was a racist. There are plenty of quotes that should make wokesters apoplectic. One of my favorites is what he is quoted by Air Force One steward Robert MacMillan as saying to two governors regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
"I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years".
LBJ was my grandfather’s first cousin. Grandpa used to tell all of us that if “that scalawag” ever showed up at our door, he would take a switch to him.
That's one of the reasons I believe that the outcome of the Welfare State was an intended consequence rather than an unintended one. LBJ wanted minorities dependent on the government and especially dependent on Democrats.
Very astute Celia. I suggest you track down the late Robert Wenzel's blog posts on EconomicPolicyJournal regarding "LBJ's grandkids", which was his sardonic reference to the social results of policies that started with LBJ. The ideological grounding for those policies certainly predates LBJ, but he was the primary activator for their execution.
Speaking of execution, I was 10 when Kennedy was assassinated and remember my dad saying that everything was going to change. Even to us kids it felt like something shifted.
I wasn't really very aware of politics in 1960, but I remember my mother's reaction to Kennedy's election: "I hope nobody shoots him, because then that (pause) Johnson will be president."
"Theoretically" is more substantive than parenthetical. Dems have NEVER been on the side of the working class, they have used the working class simply to gain power, as you stated. I knew that way back in the early 80's when my college roommates were ribbing me about being a conservative and I would ask them to name one policy Dems put in place that actually met the SUPPOSED intent. Of course they couldn't, but they all "felt" like the Dems had their back.
Sometimes I think we should do like the planet Vulcan did and outlaw emotion. :-)
My parents voted for Reagan (as did many people who, like them, were historically Democrats). They went back to voting for Ds after his tenure; at least my dad did. No telling what my mom did in the privacy of the voting booth.
Yes , they made a college education/indoctrination necessary to be seen as a person of worth. And they invented the. “—- Studies” majors to fill kids’ heads with disdain for everything American.
Now all these graduates are running/ruining our country.
In my part of the world the shift started with Reagan.
When I was a child the Republicans were the ones who would keep the rising middle class, (of immigrant stock), out of their neighborhoods, out of their children's schools and certainly not in their country clubs. They hired immigrants and blacks to be their domestics but not to be their equals. It was palpable.
I didn't know ANY Republicans until I was in my late 20's.
Did you know that the original intent of the minimum wage law, as proposed by Democrats, was to keep the "uppity xxgro" out of good jobs? It was about suppression, not support.
The people in Washington DC live in a bubble. They have no idea what it’s like out in the country, and they don’t care. I have seen no evidence whatsoever that Biden or Harris, or anyone in his cabinet can relate to any of us. The proof is in his clueless press secretary who has no shame and comes out every day with a pack of lies. Biden, plagiarist in chief, lies every single day. So does his wife. All of these people hate us. Their policies prove just how much they hate us. As I look over other Democrats who may want to be President in the future, there is not one who cares about the middle class. Not one of them has a policy that would actually benefit the citizens. They are beholden to the elites, the donors, the coastal states, and that’s it. If your party reveres people like the jackal, George Soros, nothing good will ever happen. I hate all of them.
Over the past 6 months I reconnected with an old friend and his family. Our daughters have been friends since kindergarten. We hadn’t seen each other much since Covid descended on us because his wife, who I am also friends with, is immune compromised and they felt unsafe around me because my I am a frontline healthcare worker and my husband is a first responder. Lately we have been spending time together again. This friend is a long time DNC campaign strategist and has gradually worked his way up in the DNC organization. He is in weekly contact with White House level staff. I believe my husband and I are some of the few regular middle/working class people they ever hang out with. They live a very luxurious life funded largely by inherited family wealth. They both drive Tesla’s, work from their laptops in a giant solar panel topped house, own multiple vacation homes, etc. They intermittently giggle about how nice it is that the high gas prices don’t really matter to them. Our lifestyles are extremely different. My husband and I work tons of overtime in incredibly stressful jobs to be able to meet our financial obligations, rarely ever go on vacation, etc. We only have one child because we can’t afford to properly care for more children. Two months ago they led me into a conversation in hopes, I guess, of finding out what a regular middle class mom thinks of how things are going since the Biden team rolled into the White House. I said “do you really want to know what I think ?” They said yes. I chose to not hold back. I told them, from every direction, how the Democratic Party’s latest policies have affected my family and other families like mine. There are no words to describe how completely out of touch these DNC elitist types are. They dismissed my concerns and blew off everything I said at lightening speed. It was just stunning. Then came all kinds of super condescending remarks about how I “just don’t understand the big picture, blah blah blah “. I said “well then, it’s going to be very interesting to see how this all shakes out at the midterms”. The DNC can ignore hard working middle income families like mine at their own peril.
They will think that until the big picture involves the people taking their government back. Ask the eastern European elites about that one...
Except Joe Manchin - he seems to care about the middle class. That guy for President.
Pardon the leap, but have you lost your ever lovin mind? The problem, as we have already stated, is career politicians. Joe Manchin cares Nothing for the middle class, the only reason he ever went against other Demoncrats was for political expediency in his own district. That guy is corporate owned, just look in to where his financing comes from and how he votes in lock step with it. This is the kind of wilful ignorance that has gotten us to the place we are today. Giving a career politician credit for doing something that was only designed to further their career is just contributing to the delinquency.
Yeah you’re right, I’m sorry. I meant to say Trump. Oops.
I think you give the Washington crowd a bit too much credit. It's not that they don't KNOW what's going on outside of their enclave, it's that they don't CARE what's happening to regular citizens. That is, until election time comes, then all of a sudden our issues matter. If we could get some solid and permanent campaign finance reform instituted, that took the control of politicians out of the hands of the corporations and the wealthiest of people, we might find our way back to "by the people, for the people". If all campaign funding was controlled by government and all "donations" were put in to a "pool" that was shared with all candidates, then powerful people wouldn't be able to subversively buy influence from candidates. At that point, anyone taking money from outside parties would not be able to hide it from the voters. This, in turn, would discourage those who run for office strictly for personal gain.
Normally I would try to convince my friends or kids to have a softer, more understanding mindset about what might be fueling the government, elites, and elite media’s treatment of what’s going on but when Joe Biden and his clan make their coy references to a “fundamental transition “ going on I have to admit that this is ALL deliberate !
We want our Country back !
It’s funny…as a kid the D’s were the party of the little guy and the R’s were the party of the three martini lunch crowd. Now it’s flipped. Blacks and Hispanics are migrating to the R side. Ds represent the coastal elites with their fancy college degrees.
I think the Dems were always more the party of union bosses than the party of working people. Today it's mostly teachers and other government workers who are union members.
I don't know today's statistics but a few years ago, 1 in 8 delegates to the Democrat/Socialist National Convention were members of the teacher's union. The teachers' unions serve the teachers and don't give a damn about the quality of teaching nor the benefit of the students. The democrats take huge donations from big business while all the time railing against them. unions themselves are big business. Look at the salaries of the unions' hierarchies.
https://www.nationalreview.com/corner/union-leaders-ceo-salaries-union-leaders-earn-more/
Nothing flipped. Democrats lie as they have always lied, and until recently you believed them.
They are called limousine liberals.
We still have a lot of dross to clean out of the Republican Party. I’m still of the mind we need “The Patriots Party” to form up and step up.
I'm of the same mind. But I'm keeping an open mind at least until '24. I don't think it's too early to *think* about it tho.
Third parties split the vote and usher in the party you don't want.
Better to vote in America First candidates and increase their numbers in the House and the Senate. Better to vote in a Republican president (it's going to be either Trump or DeSantis) who can start to clean things up.
DeSantis, I hope. Trump would be a disaster, if only because TDS has occluded too many people's ability to see clearly.
Trump certainly has his flaws but if he could restrain his need to be a headline 24/7 he could withstand TDS. The problem is that the “swamp” is so pervasive that he’ll need to have an effective cabinet on day 1, no more idiots like Jeff Sessions or back stabbers like “Mad Dog” Mattis, Rex Tillerson or John Kelly who have their own agendas. On day one he’ll need to purge the heads and aligned flunkies at the JustUs Department and all of the Intelligence agencies who conspired to create and perpetuate the Russia, Russia, Russia hoaxes before they can organize again. Just as important, he needs to de-classify the “secrets" the swamp creatures have hid behind for decades so Americans can fully appreciate the extent of their duplicity . Once he has a solid America First team in place, he should refrain from engaging in personal attacks and instead caricature his critics with humor, a la Reagan. Hiring a good team of joke writers would be worth every penny he has to spend. God knows there’s plenty of material to work with.
I understand the reticence in supporting Trump again but despite all the TDS and the unprecedented assaults he had to endure as president, even his critics have to marvel at what he achieved. There’s no doubt he made mistakes during his first term but that’s what rookies do. Whatever else Trump is, he ain’t no dummy. And if elected again, he wouldn’t be a rookie.
"Once he has a solid America First team in place, he should refrain from engaging in personal attacks and instead caricature his critics with humor, a la Reagan."
I'm sorry to say he simply isn't capable of that. Plus past 70, health is tenuous. Biden is, of course, a textbook case of how fast cognitive decline can hit (although he was never more than mediocre, at best). Trump will be in his eighties if he were to win in '24. We can't afford to take that risk. The world is too dangerous and the enemies to America too numerous, here and abroad, to not have a vigorous, healthy leader. Trump should have cleaned out the Aegean Stable at Justice when he had the chance. Now we need a leader who will do so.
Trump should hire you as an advisor; you are correct on all counts. Easiest decision to make: dump Jared and Ivanka as advisors. Jared did a good job on the Abraham accords, but that's it. His advice, along with others, to Trump during the early stages of the pandemic, IMO, killed any chance he had at overcoming the rigged election. (I know, easy to say in retrospect.)
Trump should also figure out how to get McConnell and McCarthy out of their lead roles in the Senate and House. They are swamp creatures.
I think the overall theme would be "forget short term popularity - work to become recognized by history as the second administration to save the union (the first being Lincoln)".
Trump bringing his family into his presidency looked so amateurish, like being president was the same as taking over a business
We're on the same page.
Trump is not going to dump Jared and Ivanka. He loves them. They love him and he doesn't have to worry about their loyalty. They are also VERY smart people. Jared is brilliant at getting things done and doesn't have an abrasive personality. He has humility and steps back from the limelight. If you want a job done and done well Jared is the man.
It is not going to be possible to challenge McCarthy for 2022. However, if Trump continues to endorse candidates for the House and they win, then the challenge can come in 2024. I nominate Jim Jordan.
Yes, Jared probably is loyal and Trump probably does love him and Ivanka. I'm not so sure that he shouldn't worry about their loyalty. I agree that both Jared and Ivanka are very smart.
But Jared's political instincts, in line with his non-abrasive personality, are to avoid creating waves. He was central in convincing Trump to keep Fauci, Birx, and Redfeld on board even though Trump knew the right thing, not the political thing, to do was to dump them.
Perhaps Jared's role could be as a "do-er". Just don't rely on him for political strategy or advice.
I agree with you. One of Trump's short comings is his loyalty. Jeff Sessions was the very first Republican Senator to endorse him. Sessions had an illustrious record as a prosecutor in Alabama so it wasn't a bad pick on paper. Sessions is an honorable man with a strict code of personal ethics. When he gave his word about recusing himself it hamstrung him. He was also too timid. Rex Tillerson was not a politician and was in over his head. Pompeo was an excellent replacement.
Unfortunately Trump is not going to be able to ape Reagan and Reagan's charming ability to use humor to calm the situation and bring it back into perspective.
With all of Trump's personality quirks I would go down on my knees in gratitude if we could get him back into the White House now.
Trump did a great job, was unduly vilified and castigated and should be honored for that. But as an elder statesman. The inescapable fact is that he would be in his 80s if elected. That's simply unacceptable.
DeSantis 24.
Trump also would be ineligible to be re-elected in 2028. I'd want a reliable conservative (like DeSantis *seems* to be) in for (hopefully) two terms to have any shot at turning this ship around. So even if I trusted Trump to follow through with good policies, he would be finished in 2028 and we need more continuity of leadership than that.
It seems Mr. Trump has decided to run, regardless of our doubts.
That's just his massive ego. His advisors and family need to work on him. I love Trump. Really do and respect all the good he did. But sometimes those you love embark on the wrong course and need reminding.
100%
I really don't want Trump to run, primarily because of the TDS hangover. In addition, I believe Trump would select the same type of cabinet and administrators who hurt him terribly during his POTUS tenure.
Ah but if DeSantis runs there will be DeSantis derangement syndrome. Count on it.
The Democrats are masterful at lies. Have you seen Newsom's ad about CA vs. FL? It's hilarious. I live in Florida. The ad is a complete 180 on the truth.
It sounds like he is speaking to young children in a condescending voice too.
I don't doubt they will go after DeSantis. But DeSantis doesn't have a lifetime of bad behavior as a NYC playboy to draw upon. And the media has already used up all the public's goodwill.
They will lie about DeSantis. But I don't think it will give them the traction that Trump did.
I agree, because DeSantis doesn't have the immature ego Trump has, who made EVERYTHING about himself. From what I've seen, DeSantis has, like Trump, the cajones to withstand the lackey media and their firehose of hate, hyperbole, and lies, but with the added strength of self control and restraint—unlike Trump who couldn't help mouthing off like a juvenile who can't let the slightest slight go by.
Well to be fair Leah Rose the slights were anything but slight.
I wonder if DeSantis wants to put his family through the Dems despicable hate tactics that Trump’s wife and son went through, also Kavanaugh. Dems are vicious and they have no boundaries or concept of decent behavior
Plus, most Americans don't view Jan 6 as the people here do.
I think MOST people don't give a sh#* about that anymore. Old news and so much more to be concerned about. Like the subject of this article.
Hm. I replied to this, but it doesn't show. Something like this:
Naw. Most people *here* in this echo chamber. But naw. You'd like to believe people will forget, no doubt. Many believe that and convince themselves it's true. Doesn't change much tho.
Dems were never the party of the little guy. They used "the little guy" to enrich themselves and their cronies.
Well, maybe. I grew up in NYC. My grandparents and parents were immigrants (legal). If they had issues they could go to their local Democrat and get help. It created generational loyalty.
Mob bosses have always done that.
Create a problem then offer the solution - the time worn strategy for Dems.
Most people don't know that Obama was at the origin of the 2008 meltdown. As a community organizer in the 90's in Chicago, he started a class action lawsuit against banks for not loaning to minorities. The Clinton admin strong-armed the banks to loan to unqualified applicants. This begat the mortgage derivates market which was meant to mitigate the risk of "subprime" loans, and instead networked the risk so every bank (and it was almost every bank in the US) became infected. This infection resulted in the inability of the market to value those assets, putting banks in violation of the capital requirements (since an asset that couldn't be valued was excluded from capital). This lead to a freeze on loans, since banks can only lend out what their capital can support.
So, unknowingly for sure, Obama created a problem and then became POTUS based on it.
Oh, by the way, 49% of the parties in the class action lawsuit who were "unfairly" denied loans defaulted. Gee, who could have predicted that?!?!
“Create a problem then offer the solution”
Kind of like the protection racket.
Obama was not the origin of the 2008 meltdown. Sure, he contributed to unqualified lending. But the center of our modern meltdowns is the central bank - i.e. Federal Reserve.
The pre-Fed era generally did not feature economy-wide meltdowns. When bank panics occurred in the 19th century (outside of the prior central banks, the first and second), you will find state-level fractional reserve banking and unjustified legal protections of that practice. But even with that, the greatest period of wealth creation in this country followed the Civil War and continued until the adoption of the Federal Reserve Act.
See Mises.org to start your education.
I don't know a lot, granted. But my understanding is that the *big* problems started happening in '95, when The Fed decided they were smart enough they could actually *control the economy.* That's how dumb they were. And if anything untoward popped up, they had all the tools to *fix* it all up. No problemo. AFAIK, they just didn't know when to *stop* fixing things.
The rest, as they say, is history. Actually, that's about all I know about it, FWIW.
I've done quite a bit of reading on this, and the economic structure that allowed the meltdown to occur is as you stated. But the trigger event is most definitely the agreement between banks and the Clinton administration in response to the Obama class action lawsuit.
Without that agreement, sub-prime loans never emerge, no risk mitigation is needed and mortgage derivatives are never developed, loan defaults don't occur, bank capital does not get hammered, and the credit market doesn't freeze.
Tammany Hall was corrupt on a massive scale. But they weren't stupid.
When I was a child the Democrats represented the average Joe. Republicans were WASPS, country club types who did their best to keep immigrant kids out of the Ivy League schools.
It's all flipped. The Republican Party is becoming the blue collar party. People don't understand Trump's appeal but there it is. He speaks like a blue collar guy and understands the working middle class. Elites will never understand this.
I, too, am old enough to remember when the Democrats were (theoretically) on the side of the working class. My parents were lifelong Democrats. I grew up hanging out at the union hall while my dad was doing his duties there. I'm not sure my dad ever questioned the fact that FDR and his ilk were wealthy men using people like my family to gain political power.
Personally, I think the shift started sooner than most imagine. I think it started with LBJ's Great Society, bribing minorities (and keeping them poor), while recruiting the wealthy who wanted to appear compassionate. At the same time, the Long March through the Institutions had begun, ensuring that more and more of the most educated would come out of college on the side of the Left.
Until they came to a realization that the working class is not necessary in a world in which you can "rent" subjugated masses from places like China, Mexico, Vietnam and elsewhere world over.
They "fought for the little guy" by creating an economic monstrosity in which entire industries became so consolidated that entire markets are controlled by a few enormous entities so if there is a mishap in a baby formula factory that controls a large chink of the supply the whole thing falls apart. You know that feeling when you receive the at home COVID test from the US Govt with a quality control paper in the package in Chinese.
They further "fought for the little guy" by deciding that it was smart to place all of our eggs in the China basket so that even the most obscure shit has to be made there so that if a fuckin' ship gets stranded we are all fucked.
Complete and absolute dependency.
As a result of their famous "fight for the little guy" the big guys are bigger than ever, and Amazon will swallow all these little guys.
A slow-growing but highly virulent cancer that is now showing up in every public space.
Yikes. I had to track your comment all the way up the thread to figure out what you were referring to.
I think it's been pretty well established, although effectively suppressed by historians that LBJ was a racist. There are plenty of quotes that should make wokesters apoplectic. One of my favorites is what he is quoted by Air Force One steward Robert MacMillan as saying to two governors regarding the Civil Rights Act of 1964,
"I'll have them niggers voting Democratic for the next two hundred years".
LBJ was my grandfather’s first cousin. Grandpa used to tell all of us that if “that scalawag” ever showed up at our door, he would take a switch to him.
That's one of the reasons I believe that the outcome of the Welfare State was an intended consequence rather than an unintended one. LBJ wanted minorities dependent on the government and especially dependent on Democrats.
It's ok for Democrats to be racists.
As long as they have their Black lives matter sign in the front yard right?
Very astute Celia. I suggest you track down the late Robert Wenzel's blog posts on EconomicPolicyJournal regarding "LBJ's grandkids", which was his sardonic reference to the social results of policies that started with LBJ. The ideological grounding for those policies certainly predates LBJ, but he was the primary activator for their execution.
Speaking of execution, I was 10 when Kennedy was assassinated and remember my dad saying that everything was going to change. Even to us kids it felt like something shifted.
I wasn't really very aware of politics in 1960, but I remember my mother's reaction to Kennedy's election: "I hope nobody shoots him, because then that (pause) Johnson will be president."
"Theoretically" is more substantive than parenthetical. Dems have NEVER been on the side of the working class, they have used the working class simply to gain power, as you stated. I knew that way back in the early 80's when my college roommates were ribbing me about being a conservative and I would ask them to name one policy Dems put in place that actually met the SUPPOSED intent. Of course they couldn't, but they all "felt" like the Dems had their back.
Sometimes I think we should do like the planet Vulcan did and outlaw emotion. :-)
I second that emotion
My parents voted for Reagan (as did many people who, like them, were historically Democrats). They went back to voting for Ds after his tenure; at least my dad did. No telling what my mom did in the privacy of the voting booth.
Yes , they made a college education/indoctrination necessary to be seen as a person of worth. And they invented the. “—- Studies” majors to fill kids’ heads with disdain for everything American.
Now all these graduates are running/ruining our country.
In my part of the world the shift started with Reagan.
When I was a child the Republicans were the ones who would keep the rising middle class, (of immigrant stock), out of their neighborhoods, out of their children's schools and certainly not in their country clubs. They hired immigrants and blacks to be their domestics but not to be their equals. It was palpable.
I didn't know ANY Republicans until I was in my late 20's.
I’m from New England and can remember when all the states except Massachusetts and Rode Island were red
NY had a Republican governor and a Republican senator (Javits) but they would be moderate Democrats by current standards.
Did you know that the original intent of the minimum wage law, as proposed by Democrats, was to keep the "uppity xxgro" out of good jobs? It was about suppression, not support.
Yup. That was FDR, right?
You've said elsewhere that you grew up in NYC. The rest of the country was very different.