American Politics

[Franckie]

Seeing Biden's obvious cognitive decline, it's evident he wasn't fit for the presidency. Ditto for Trump, whose cognitive decline is even worse than Biden's, but it's something Fox News won't talk about for obvious reasons. Ditto for mainstream media, which will instead engage in "both sides-ism" for the next three months.

Not sure what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with anything with Biden getting the boot. Democrats asked him to step down because he wasn't just a political liability. He was asked to step down because he wasn't fit to lead the USA for another four years. Regarding Israel, a two-state solution has been dead since the 1990s following the growth of the Israeli hard-right and the assassination of political figures like Yitzhak Rabin. The Middle East still hasn't accepted the fact that Israel isn't going anywhere and even if all of them gang up on them as they've done in previous wars, Israel will once again come out on top.

 

[xi0]

Democrats asked him to step down because he wasn't just a political liability. He was asked to step down because he wasn't fit to lead the USA for another four years.

That's obviously not true though. If Biden's behavior was the same and it hadn't hurt his polling numbers, he absolutely would have made it to the election. Democratic leadership can pat themselves on the back for all the "good vibes" they have now, but make no mistake, they would have had no issue supporting the candidate that had the best chance of winning. Leadership has no scruples, this wasn't some sort of dutiful, moral stand they made.

 

[M3J]

That's like asking me to show you evidence that Black people won't vote for Republicans. Do historical trends not mean anything to you?

I do know Clinton and Biden won popular votes, but the left somehow got blamed for Clinton losing the electoral.

It wasn't a main reason, people wanted him to step down because he embarrassed himself on national television and his polling numbers tanked. That and the Democratic apparatus finally accepted quietly what everyone knew for a while now.

There's a difference between being hopeful that a different candidate wouldn't be as much of a dyed in the wool Zionist as Biden is and deluding yourself into thinking it was a "main reason". She's off to a pretty terrible start in that area given her statements on protesters, but there might be some slight hope if she picks Walz instead of someone like Shapiro or Kelly.

Also Yang ended his political career by being an unabashed moron and going third party.

The Dem voters, yeah.


I thought third party/being "moderate" is what led to his popularity. I remember his popularity took a nosedive after his both-siding Israel's genocide of Palestine. Like, I never saw him get attacked until that day.

Hmmm, fair I suppose? Democrats need to get of the socialism bandwagon at least. They aren't actually that and they'd be fools to want socialism anyways. And even then the word means a bunch of different things to a bunch of different people. Just yesterday I was watching a report where the honest to god framing was how in venezuela maduro turned people's neighbors into violent militants, guerrillas in all but name, more than ready to kill for the socialist cause. Clearly this isn't the context in the US but messaging wise it's awful. Almost as bad as "defunding the police" was.

Although I don't think Dems are socialists, it's socialism or whatever FDR did that helped save USA during The Great Depression, and benefitted people. The whole free market thing that Hoover tried just kept making things worse.

Seeing Biden's obvious cognitive decline, it's evident he wasn't fit for the presidency. Ditto for Trump, whose cognitive decline is even worse than Biden's, but it's something Fox News won't talk about for obvious reasons. Ditto for mainstream media, which will instead engage in "both sides-ism" for the next three months.

Not sure what the Israeli-Palestinian conflict has to do with anything with Biden getting the boot. Democrats asked him to step down because he wasn't just a political liability. He was asked to step down because he wasn't fit to lead the USA for another four years. Regarding Israel, a two-state solution has been dead since the 1990s following the growth of the Israeli hard-right and the assassination of political figures like Yitzhak Rabin. The Middle East still hasn't accepted the fact that Israel isn't going anywhere and even if all of them gang up on them as they've done in previous wars, Israel will once again come out on top.

What got Biden to step down is the party seeing how his cognitive decline (or appearance of that) would have hurt their chances of winning. because the voters expect a president of sound and healthy mind.

Trump doesn't need to step down no matter how much his cognitive abilities decline, because as long as he shills for white supremacists he will get votes. They're supporting him because he agree with him blaming immigrants and minorities for every issue going on, and that he should take action.

 

[James Rye]

The newest take of Trump that the crowd on the airfield when Harris landed was fake and his followers taking that for real is hilarious. Like who in their sane mind would think anyone would go through the effort to fake such a huge crowd, hundreds of videos and thousands of photos from journalists, TV crews and normal people on facebook and X, just to leave hints that its fake? Way cheaper to pay people and bus them there, lol.

Trumpy is probably truly no longer sane.

 

[M3J]

I think Trump is very much sane, and either he or his staff know how to rile up his fanbase. They know the cult will believe anything he says even with proof in front of their eyes saying he's lying. Libs need to stop worrying about what Trump says and start worrying about making sure they're able to get votes from people left of center as well as centrists/moderates.

At this point, there's no hope for Trump cultists to see the truth so no point in fighting a losing battle.

 

[xi0]

I thought third party/being "moderate" is what led to his popularity. I remember his popularity took a nosedive after his both-siding Israel's genocide of Palestine. Like, I never saw him get attacked until that day.

You weren't paying attention then, he's been ridiculed for a while

 

[ninjabot]

I do know Clinton and Biden won popular votes, but the left somehow got blamed for Clinton losing the electoral.

I don't remember the left being blamed for Clinton's failure. I remember her unlikeability being blamed for it mostly. That she didn't do enough to change that, or appeal to many voters over the campaign (whether we wanna blame that on laziness or her not taking Trump's popularity seriously).

I thought third party/being "moderate" is what led to his popularity. I remember his popularity took a nosedive after his both-siding Israel's genocide of Palestine. Like, I never saw him get attacked until that day.

For the first sentence, yes, because the majority of people/voters are moderate. Even if they lean left or right, they're neither far left nor far right. For the second sentence, his popularity taking a nosedive after October 7th didn't happen among moderates (mostly), it happened among leftists. It just so happened that those attacks lined up with the attacks on his age and other problems people had with him from everywhere else in the political spectrum. If it felt to you like the majority of people were attacking him for his Zionism that just reveals where you get your news from: predominately leftist sources.

 

[M3J]

You weren't paying attention then, he's been ridiculed for a while

Even during the campaign? I know I started disliking him because he was so centrist but seemed to have a bit more smoke for the left than for the right.

I don't remember the left being blamed for Clinton's failure. I remember her unlikeability being blamed for it mostly. That she didn't do enough to change that, or appeal to many voters over the campaign (whether we wanna blame that on laziness or her not taking Trump's popularity seriously).



For the first sentence, yes, because the majority of people/voters are moderate. Even if they lean left or right, they're neither far left nor far right. For the second sentence, his popularity taking a nosedive after October 7th didn't happen among moderates (mostly), it happened among leftists. It just so happened that those attacks lined up with the attacks on his age and other problems people had with him from everywhere else in the political spectrum. If it felt to you like the majority of people were attacking him for his Zionism that just reveals where you get your news from: predominately leftist sources.

PLenty of her supporters and some hardcore Dems blamed the left. I think it's more because of her not actually caring that she didn't try to appeal to people where they were actually undecided until Trump visited them. It's crazy because if Clinton went out to more places that were undecided or struggling, she could gotten more votes like Trump did when he did that.

Are we talking about Andrew Yang, the presidential candidate years ago? Because I'm talking about his popularity taking a nosedive in 2016 or 2020 (I forgot which election), after he both-sided a genocide AND acted as if he was a New Yorker (I forgot about this until just now looool). I don't know what happened to him or his popularity after Oct 7, and I don't really care as long as I don't see his stupid tweets on my timeline. I remember him saying some right-leaning stuff though

 

[xi0]

Andrew Yang has been shit on routinely ever since his disastrous NYC mayoral campaign in 2021. Then he made a show of leaving the Democratic Party as a result and cozied up to any internet/IDW grifter online for attention. Really the only positive with him is him helping to popularize the idea of UBI, but you can say the same thing about Musk and he's basically satan at this point.

So while I'm sure plenty people shit on him for being a fence-sitter or liberal zionist, to say that that's what ruined his public profile isn't accurate at all.

 

[M3J]

This was around 2021 then, but I'm just going by the reactions I read and saw. The only ones that still liked him were the centrists who both-side everything while actually leaning towards the right

 

[ninjabot]

Are we talking about Andrew Yang, the presidential candidate years ago?

Oops. Thought we were talking about Biden still.

 

[xi0]

I don't remember the left being blamed for Clinton's failure. I remember her unlikeability being blamed for it mostly. That she didn't do enough to change that, or appeal to many voters over the campaign (whether we wanna blame that on laziness or her not taking Trump's popularity seriously).

You don't remember Clintonites shitting on "Bernie Bros" and equating them to alt-right morons? I definitely do lol

 

[M3J]

Oops. Thought we were talking about Biden still.

Regarding Biden, I thought his popularity started dropping because a lot of people don't understand economics and blamed him for everything getting more expensive

 

[ninjabot]

You don't remember Clintonites shitting on "Bernie Bros" and equating them to alt-right morons? I definitely do lol

I mean sure but not significantly. Back then I'd say the Leftists weren't as self destructive as they are now. Admittedly, that was back when I was way more of a Vaush fan than Destiny and once Bernie dropped out he IMMEDIATELY jumped to pushing for Hillary support among his community. So did Hasan... barely. Vaguely. Guess I shouldn't judge how leftists in general act/were treated based on how the very niche twitchpol environment behaves.

I genuinely didn't remember Dems blaming Hillary's loss on Leftists not towing the party line. It's why I was so vitriolic and violent towards M3J over the past few months, because I thought this was a relatively new phenomenon of self sabotage.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2024, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2024 ---

Regarding Biden, I thought his popularity started dropping because a lot of people don't understand economics and blamed him for everything getting more expensive

Yep.

 

[M3J]

I mean sure but not significantly. Back then I'd say the Leftists weren't as self destructive as they are now. Admittedly, that was back when I was way more of a Vaush fan than Destiny and once Bernie dropped out he IMMEDIATELY jumped to pushing for Hillary support among his community. So did Hasan... barely. Vaguely. Guess I shouldn't judge how leftists in general act/were treated based on how the very niche twitchpol environment behaves.

I genuinely didn't remember Dems blaming Hillary's loss on Leftists not towing the party line. It's why I was so vitriolic and violent towards M3J over the past few months, because I thought this was a relatively new phenomenon of self sabotage.

--- Double Post Merged, Aug 14, 2024, Original Post Date: Aug 14, 2024 ---

Yep.

Bernie didn't immediately support Clinton, it took him a while to do that. I forgot if it was only after she agreed to some things, but I remember Bernie getting tons of flak (even from me) for not encouraging his supporters to vote for Clinton within few days. I remember being super annoyed by the liberals and the left because of the infighting.

It's funny because I was actually anti-Clinton and was supporting Trump until I saw his tweets and realized he's a bigoted liar. Didn't want Clinton to win the primary, especially over Bernie, but Clinton was still better than Trump. now, I'm not so sure considering how she keeps damaging the Dems.

Hopefully the left tries to help Harris win as well. Some of the leftists I follow make me feel... uncomfortable, but hopefully they're in the minority.


We can blame the presidents for not doing more to combat companies exploiting customers, but other than that it's not their fault companies are choosing to price gouge to make more profit. There's a reason why they saw record profits in the past few years. Oddly, conservatives aren't going after Trump for companies laying off people despite getting tax cuts that saved them tons of money.

 

[xi0]

I genuinely didn't remember Dems blaming Hillary's loss on Leftists not towing the party line. It's why I was so vitriolic and violent towards M3J over the past few months, because I thought this was a relatively new phenomenon of self sabotage.

My recollection is they definitely did. There were many thinkpieces talking about how Trump only won because Bernie Bros were secret nazis that jumped over to vote for him when Bernie dropped out of the race. "Bernie or Bust"-ers were definitely acknowledged in the mainstream media to some degree or another. You can think/say what you want of that, but the language and tone used by hardcore Hillary supporters was incredibly disingenuous and infuriating.

 

[kkck]

Harris to propose ban on grocery price gouging. Would it cool inflation?

Economists who spoke to ABC News disagreed sharply over the measure.

abcnews.go.com

This is a confusing mess of policy... Price caps on stuff to begin with are a certain path towards failure. If companies can't charge a price which is profitable for them then they simply won't make stuff. On the other hand price gouging is already a crime (or should be in any sane place). So, um, just use price gouging laws (or make crime illegal). Overall it seems like there's no path to victory here. There could be someone out there price gouging but as far as groceries go the fact is that there's a fair bit of volatility on raw materials and they are in fact expensive. So it's unlikely a significant chunk of grocery producers are doing this.

 

[ninjabot]

My guess is she wanted to directly focus on policy to avoid getting in the muck with Donald on the lame culture war stuff he wants to fight over. Plus the economy is chief among voter concerns. And by signal boosting something that's already illegal/bad amongst all of society, on paper it sounded like a sure-fire ploy to get the masses on her side.

Just should've looked a bit more into things before co-signing a decision. Unless there's something we're missing.

 

[M3J]

Did grocery chains take advantage of COVID shortages to raise prices? FTC says yes

Large grocery store chains raised prices well above their costs during the pandemic's supply-chain bottlenecks and product shortages, FTC report says.

www.usatoday.com

FTC Releases Report on Grocery Supply Chain Disruptions

The Federal Trade Commission today issued a report on the causes behind grocery supply chain disruptions resulting from the COVID-19 pandemic.

www.ftc.gov

A quick Google search.


It seems that a chunk of grocery producers/sellers are in fact price gouging. This was obvious years ago, when things suddenly became way more expensive than they should have been, and stayed that way, while companies were making record profits. If they were increasing prices to offset the increased expenses, then their profits wouldn't be as high or record high as it has been.

 

[SharkBait]

Harris to propose ban on grocery price gouging. Would it cool inflation?

Economists who spoke to ABC News disagreed sharply over the measure.

abcnews.go.com

This is a confusing mess of policy... Price caps on stuff to begin with are a certain path towards failure. If companies can't charge a price which is profitable for them then they simply won't make stuff. On the other hand price gouging is already a crime (or should be in any sane place). So, um, just use price gouging laws (or make crime illegal). Overall it seems like there's no path to victory here. There could be someone out there price gouging but as far as groceries go the fact is that there's a fair bit of volatility on raw materials and they are in fact expensive. So it's unlikely a significant chunk of grocery producers are doing this.

Companies are making significant profit most of the major companies in their financial fillings for the last few quarters are still making record profits even as Volume of Product sold has declined yet Prices have remained elevated. Apart from impacted eggs from the bird flu and fruit issues driving juices higher there is plenty of room for these major companies to decrease prices. Shipping container prices aren't even 10x in price to ship stuff like they were early in the pandemic so it's not clear where companies have reason to keep prices elevated when input costs are not high anymore.

Even in her drug costs, the affected companies that negotiated prices are only losing 10% of profit and will still make 90% of their revenue from US citizens. The companies issues statements to not worry shareholders.