squiblet @ squiblet @kbin.social

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2 yr. ago

Of course Trump wanted to do one of his usual "omg witch hunt" speeches. He didn't seem to realize that the trial was already over, and in the penalty phase, or that the speech would not be on TV. The email chain between Trump's incompetent lawyer (who had previously been reported on as one of his 'good' ones) was hilarious but also just sad, I mean, the guy can't even be bothered to capitalize words starting sentences and the request to 'delay until Jan 29th because Melania's parent died' is ludicrously transparent. Anyway, his lawyer needs to be fined or formally censured some more.

In a normal political environment he would have had to at least put it in a blind trust, like how Jimmy Carter did with his peanut farm (he put it in a blind trust). Of course Trump would at most have turned it over to his sons, which he claimed he did in 2017. Anyway I have a feeling this sum barely scratches the surface ($2B from KSA to his son-in-law, for instance?).

It's basically that our electoral system is about fully decayed, as far as the influence of money, and the Israel lobby has been very strong for quite some time. I don't think they're picking to support Israel because they truly care one way or the other, rather that they do believe it's politically expedient.

Centrist Democrats are basically the Republicans of the 80s. We don't really have much representation on the left at all.

I agree. The Dems are doing a pretty crappy job, like they did in 2015-16. I have no idea why Biden think he needs to run again when he could pass the torch to someone like Newsom and it would be much more energizing. It's pretty egotistical of him when he already said he wasn't going to run a 2nd time, and I don't get this "only I can beat trump" idea he has. I don't think it was true in 2020 and it's not now. And yes, the Israel support needs to go, but of course, it's not only Biden - it's a wide swath of politicians in Congress from both parties who are happy to give Israel a blank check and look the other way. That needs to change somehow and it would take a lot more than a presidential election.

That would be nice. His admin should obviously be way more firm against Israel. Americans are obviously not being properly represented by either party. The proper thing to do would to pressure Democrats in Congress and the Biden admin without giving up and tossing the election to the fascists, which seems to be where it's headed.

Trump isn't in any way an unknown and he's made his 'policy' opinions extremely clear, to the extent anything he says is clear. He also had 4 years of a presidency with a pretty shitty record on just about everything except getting abortion banned, packing courts with religious ideologues, and tax cuts for rich people. This next election is just as much 'oh please anyone but fucking trump' as the last one, and Biden did have tons of people voting against Trump as much as voting for Biden. But sure, Americans love this stupid "Let's give the other party a chance" thing and have short memories and poor sources of information.

Should Biden be running only on "I'm not Trump"? No, of course not. It is still a factor though and he might actually have a harder time against a different opponent. I would love for someone younger and sharper like Gavin Newsom to step up, but both national parties are in shambles right now - the RNC with their near-total ownership by Trump, and the Democrats doing the same stupid shit they did when Bernie was running and not giving other candidates a fair chance.

It’s not Trump who actually does anything. It’s the long line of cruel ideologues and grifters he puts in his administration like Steven Miller, and the police-military complex they’ve built up like ICE. And of course the Trump admin can and would give Israel weapons and money as easily as Biden.

The federal government routinely ties highway funds to conditions like that - they did it with drinking age, as well as BAC percentage for drunk driving laws.

One example:

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/NationalMinimumDrinkingAgeAct

The National Minimum Drinking Age Act of 1984 was [… ] signed into law by President Ronald Reagan on July 17, 1984. The act would punish any state that allowed persons under 21 years to purchase alcoholic beverages by reducing its annual federal highway apportionment by 10 percent.

The next step is to turn both thumbs down and frown while saying socialism.

Dickens gave the capitalist scathing criticism, so maybe one of his villains such as Scrooge.

I feel like Biden has put together a competent administration and has accomplished some positive things for people. They could do better at messaging about that.

However, my comments are based on this one issue which other people brought up, not me. It’s simply a fact that any Republican admin would be worse about war and human rights, because they always have been.

Yes, that’s the problem. People who otherwise would vote for a Democratic admin are being turned off and we will end up with something worse in a dozen respects because people can’t really think strategically. Trump and DeSantis have called for genocide IN THE US, so maybe that’s not great criteria.

This is true. We are not presented with a choice about this, same as many other issues such as capitalism and corporate power.

I’d also look at Ukraine and domestic issues however. Trump enthusiastically embraced ultra fucked up policies like splitting up migrant children from their parents. He also declared he’d build camps in the US for immigrants.

Trump also would hand over Ukraine to Putin. And it’s not just Trump, it’s the majority of new school R politicians who want to end aid.

So, while the US is fucked on Israel policy, there are still options about how much harm you’d like kids in other countries to come to.

I’d love for it to be a different candidate than Biden. There’s no guarantee whoever else they come up with would be better on this issue though. It’s a sizable group but a minority of D politicians who oppose the current policy of giving Israel weapons.

Still though, another Trump admin would be an unprecedented complete clusterfuck of a disaster, so I don’t really care whether if it’s Biden or Jiminy Cricket, just not that insufferable deranged criminal again.

Even if not Trump, republicans have fallen over themselves to express the most support of the current government of Israel and their policies. At this point non Trump R candidates leading are Haley and DeSantis, who would hardly say “you know, we need to pressure Israel to stop and we’re increasing humanitarian programs in Gaza”.

Trump’s policy would be the same things but worse. So, people thinking they’ll sit it out or oppose Biden aren’t really thinking this through.

I feel like people who make sweeping comments about innocuous behaviors to accuse others of psychopathy are psychopaths.

Also, why blur the profile pics but not the account handles?

They’re obsessed with their own power and money imo. Prisons make money, and keep the proles in line using fear. That’s the whole reason for the drug war - Nixon etc wanted to harm their political enemies, as in leftists and minorities, while also grifting money from the government and increasing authoritarianism.

It seems like OP is talking about an espresso drink. Yes, that’s typically espresso in water or milk, maybe steamed milk/froth. The decaf would contribute flavor but little caffeine. I’m not sure why OP is confused about this.

I’m aware of how espresso drinks work. I was picturing the decaf being brewed decaf, not an espresso drink. I guess OP does mean an americano or a cappuccino or something. So in terms of flavor, it contributes, in terms of caffeine, it does not.

I don’t get any sort of milk in my coffee, so it would be strange for it to taste like milk. But it’s true that a lot of people want a coffee milkshake with a ton of sugar, like a Frappuccino.