Politics

[NorthDakota]

Who was the last authoritarian to win a major military conflict? I honestly can't think of any since WWI. Part of the reason is that people don't want to fight for a despot and the way the military is organized is generally inefficient or corrupt.

The Soviets were successful in WW2, though that was a big coalition.
Chairman Mao was successful in the Chinese Civil War, but thats a civil war - locked up the West in Korea as well. Stalemate?
Francisco Franco - same as above sans Korea moment.
Ho Chi Minh and North Vietnam?

All of those are kinda iffy.

 

[Irish#1]

Who was the last authoritarian to win a major military conflict? I honestly can't think of any since WWI. Part of the reason is that people don't want to fight for a despot and the way the military is organized is generally inefficient or corrupt.

Good point tho on the protests in 2020 that happened here.

On economics -- the fed is literally trying to torpedo the economy because too many poor people got money which (along with corporate profiteering or greed or whatever you want to call it) is driving inflation. And despite all of that, the economy is still chugging along with low unemployment. China's economy right now is categorically worse than the US economy in many important indicators, and the strength of the dollar relative to the Euro also shows how the United States is doing relative to other western countries.

Things aren't rosey in China for sure. Workers refusing to work in the Apple factory are protesting and getting beaten and jailed. Protesting because COVID is much worse than what China wants to admit.

 

[Irish#1]

The Soviets were successful in WW2, though that was a big coalition.
Chairman Mao was successful in the Chinese Civil War, but thats a civil war - locked up the West in Korea as well. Stalemate?
Francisco Franco - same as above sans Korea moment.
Ho Chi Minh and North Vietnam?

All of those are kinda iffy.

Yeah, I wouldn't include Russia given it was a group effort. They had higher aspirations, but decided to settle rather than take on Uncle Sam and England.

Ho Chi Minh is ordering the Grand Slam in English at the Saigon Denny's if China isn't backing them.

 

[sixstar]

Michael Avenatti sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for defrauding his clients and for obstructing IRS efforts.

Tweet below incorrectly states 4 years (it's actually 14), but the video gave me some lulz.




also... from CNN:


Never.

 

[ulukinatme]

Michael Avenatti sentenced to 14 years in federal prison for defrauding his clients and for obstructing IRS efforts.

Tweet below incorrectly states 4 years (it's actually 14), but the video gave me some lulz.




also... from CNN:
View attachment 3052137

Never.

Ha! That's pretty good. The wife and I just watched that Neflix documentary "Pepsi, Where's My Jet?" It has Avenatti all over it and talks about his early days in law as he helped that kid try and get the Harrier Jet from the Pepsi promotion. Interesting documentary, a bit long and played up, but the guy definitely comes off as a little bit of a scumbag. He certainly knows how to use the media to influence his position, but he's a bit underhanded and straddles the line (or crosses it) when it comes to the law.

 

[NorthDakota]

Ha! That's pretty good. The wife and I just watched that Neflix documentary "Pepsi, Where's My Jet?" It has Avenatti all over it and talks about his early days in law as he helped that kid try and get the Harrier Jet from the Pepsi promotion. Interesting documentary, a bit long and played up, but the guy definitely comes off as a little bit of a scumbag. He certainly knows how to use the media to influence his position, but he's a bit underhanded and straddles the line (or crosses it) when it comes to the law.

Its a case every law student studies extensively, at least these days. The kid deserved the jet! I should watch the documentary. I usually only skimmed readings in that class anyway.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

McConnell should have traded Herschel Walker for picks.

 

[NorthDakota]

McConnell should have traded Herschel Walker for picks.

Seeing the "Trump Forever" people's response to Herschel losing is wild.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

Seeing the "Trump Forever" people's response to Herschel losing is wild.

Yeah. Wild.

 

[NorthDakota]

It is baffling to me that some of these big states can't find good candidates to run for these offices. The 17th Amendment remains among our worst ideas as a country.

 

[NDMatt91]

I'm sick and tired of losing. Time to take this loser out to pasture.

 

[NDMatt91]

It is baffling to me that some of these big states can't find good candidates to run for these offices. The 17th Amendment remains among our worst ideas as a country.

The blame should go to portions of the GOP primary electorate and Trump for not going away. Enough GOP voters in PA voted for Oz instead of David McCormick, a businessman who wasn't in politics, simply because Trump liked that he was a doctor on TV. Enough GOP voters in AZ voted for Kari Lake because she carried a cardboard cutout of Trump everywhere she went.

Trump made it his mission to make Pat Toomey and Doug Ducey unelectable going forward in PA and AZ, respectively, because they had the audacity to not parrot his conspiracy theories about dominion machines. Toomey would've defeated Fetterman. Ducey, the sitting Governor of AZ, was going to run for the Senate seat and likely would've defeated Mark Kelly. Chris Sununu, the popular Governor of NH, was planning on running for the Senate but Lewandowski and Trump were mad at him and did what they could to prop up Don Bolduc, therefore making the nomination for Senate difficult. Instead, he ran for Governor. Lewandowski and Trump were angry with Sununu again in the spring after he called Trump crazy and tried to get someone to primary him for Governor. Sununu would've easily defeated Maggie Hassan.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

I just read a good discussion on Georgia demographic changes. Don’t see GOP being competitive there based on the trends it laid out. For example Newt Gingrich’s former district has gone from plus 6 GOP to plus 20 Dem in ten years. Counties that voted for Romney are now plus 20 Dem. As of this run off the four largest cities in Georgia all heavily favored Dems and the vote tally from these four metro areas outnumber the rural votes. Not looking good for The party of Trump on GA. Walker underperformed significantly this runoff in counties easily Carrie’s by GOP and Warnock out performed in the every county but 2.

 

[NorthDakota]

I just read a good discussion on Georgia demographic changes. Don’t see GOP being competitive there based on the trends it laid out. For example Newt Gingrich’s former district has gone from plus 6 GOP to plus 20 Dem in ten years. Counties that voted for Romney are now plus 20 Dem. As of this run off the four largest cities in Georgia all heavily favored Dems and the vote tally from these four metro areas outnumber the rural votes. Not looking good for The party of Trump on GA. Walker underperformed significantly this runoff in counties easily Carrie’s by GOP and Warnock out performed in the every county but 2.

I don't see why the GOP wouldn't be competitive.

GOP lost the Senate seat. They swept the rest of the statewide elections (Gov, LT. Gov, AG, Ag Sec, School super, etc.).

 

[NorthDakota]

The blame should go to portions of the GOP primary electorate and Trump for not going away. Enough GOP voters in PA voted for Oz instead of David McCormick, a businessman who wasn't in politics, simply because Trump liked that he was a doctor on TV. Enough GOP voters in AZ voted for Kari Lake because she carried a cardboard cutout of Trump everywhere she went.

Trump made it his mission to make Pat Toomey and Doug Ducey unelectable going forward in PA and AZ, respectively, because they had the audacity to not parrot his conspiracy theories about dominion machines. Toomey would've defeated Fetterman. Ducey, the sitting Governor of AZ, was going to run for the Senate seat and likely would've defeated Mark Kelly. Chris Sununu, the popular Governor of NH, was planning on running for the Senate but Lewandowski and Trump were mad at him and did what they could to prop up Don Bolduc, therefore making the nomination for Senate difficult. Instead, he ran for Governor. Lewandowski and Trump were angry with Sununu again in the spring after he called Trump crazy and tried to get someone to primary him for Governor. Sununu would've easily defeated Maggie Hassan.

I agree on all of this but Sununu. He backed out on running for Senate a long time ago, and it had nothing to do with having a difficult nomination process.

 

[NDMatt91]

I just read a good discussion on Georgia demographic changes. Don’t see GOP being competitive there based on the trends it laid out. For example Newt Gingrich’s former district has gone from plus 6 GOP to plus 20 Dem in ten years. Counties that voted for Romney are now plus 20 Dem. As of this run off the four largest cities in Georgia all heavily favored Dems and the vote tally from these four metro areas outnumber the rural votes. Not looking good for The party of Trump on GA. Walker underperformed significantly this runoff in counties easily Carrie’s by GOP and Warnock out performed in the every county but 2.

The demographics are changing, but it's still a slightly right-of-center state (PVI in 2020 was R +4.2). The problem is the GOP is running bad candidates. The 8 state-wide office holders who won in November all won by at least 5 points and 190K votes. All of them received at least 100K more votes than Walker did in November. Those 8 office holders, in particular Brian Kemp, won because they weren't crazy. They ignored the noise and focused on the issues. Kemp focused on the economy and the state rewarded him. He defeated Abrams by approximately 300K votes. In 2020, over 130K people voted for at least 1 Republican on the ballot but didn't vote for Trump. Trump alienates Independents and suburban voters who historically vote Republican. Brian Kemp, Brad Raffensperger, and the Republicans who outperformed Trump in 2020 did not.

Walker was a horrible candidate with no record and a ton of baggage. Candidate quality matters. For example, GA prevented Governors from serving consecutive terms, like VA does, and Kemp ran for the Senate and became the GOP nominee, he would've defeated Warnock last night.

 

[NDMatt91]

I agree on all of this but Sununu. He backed out on running for Senate a long time ago, and it had nothing to do with having a difficult nomination process.

You may be right and I may be getting the timeline wrong. I live in Massachusetts and some of the conservative radio hosts here would mention that Lewandowski and Trump were angry with Sununu before he declined to run for the Senate.

 

[Cackalacky2.0]

I don't see why the GOP wouldn't be competitive.

GOP lost the Senate seat. They swept the rest of the statewide elections (Gov, LT. Gov, AG, Ag Sec, School super, etc.).

My point is that it’s trending away from GOP and has been for many years. Sure local and state offices arnt always reflective of the state as a whole. Specifically the Atlanta suburbs have swung massively for Dems in national elections.

 

[Blazers46]

View attachment 3052155

I'm sick and tired of losing. Time to take this loser out to pasture.

I’m beginning to think Trumps biggest donors for 2024 will be democrats, ironically.

 

[NDMatt91]

I’m beginning to think Trumps biggest donors for 2024 will be democrats, ironically.

You could be right. The Lincoln Project, who won't even endorse Mitt Romney for Senate in 2024, is essentially rooting for Trump to be the nominee. If they cared about Democracy, they'd be cheering on other Republicans (Sununu, DeSantis, Hogan, etc.) to primary Trump and beat him. They're not doing that, and for two reasons. One, they want Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee in 2024 is to win. They know those candidates are more electable than Trump and don't have his baggage. Second, Trump being in the news is better for their bank accounts.

It'll only be a matter of time until we see MSNBC, CNN, and the NYT talk about how Larry Hogan is the devil for supporting charter schools, how Sununu is awful for whatever reason, and how DeSantis is worse than Trump.

 

[Blazers46]

You could be right. The Lincoln Project, who won't even endorse Mitt Romney for Senate in 2024, is essentially rooting for Trump to be the nominee. If they cared about Democracy, they'd be cheering on other Republicans (Sununu, DeSantis, Hogan, etc.) to primary Trump and beat him. They're not doing that, and for two reasons. One, they want Biden or whoever the Democratic nominee in 2024 is to win. They know those candidates are more electable than Trump and don't have his baggage. Second, Trump being in the news is better for their bank accounts.

It'll only be a matter of time until we see MSNBC, CNN, and the NYT talk about how Larry Hogan is the devil for supporting charter schools, how Sununu is awful for whatever reason, and how DeSantis is worse than Trump.

Sounds like too much work. Just call them racist and Russian operatives. Tried and true.

 

[ulukinatme]

Sounds like too much work. Just call them racist and Russian operatives. Tried and true.

They've already started calling DeSantis a Nazi. It'll only be a matter of time before he's Fascist numero uno in their eyes. It's a tired tactic, but the extremists eat up the propaganda.

 

[Jiggafini19Deux]

My point is that it’s trending away from GOP and has been for many years. Sure local and state offices arnt always reflective of the state as a whole. Specifically the Atlanta suburbs have swung massively for Dems in national elections.

State Houses are the key. 2010 proved that and then some.

 

[Polish Leppy 22]

They've already started calling DeSantis a Nazi. It'll only be a matter of time before he's Fascist numero uno in their eyes. It's a tired tactic, but the extremists eat up the propaganda.

Democratic Party playbook currently: anyone who opposes us is a Nazi/ fascist/ white supremacist

Also, vote for us. We're very inclusive and tolerant of all peoples.

 

[NDMatt91]

They've already started calling DeSantis a Nazi. It'll only be a matter of time before he's Fascist numero uno in their eyes. It's a tired tactic, but the extremists eat up the propaganda.

They have, but the difference is labels won't stick to him in the minds of voters like with Trump. DeSantis was made out to be the worst person whoever lived during COVID by the media. What happened? People flocked to Florida from blue states and he won Florida by over 19% last month. Voters didn't buy what the media and Democrats said about him. He doesn't have the baggage Trump does, he doesn't constantly say stupid things, and he's more articulate.

 

[ulukinatme]

They have, but the difference is labels won't stick to him in the minds of voters like with Trump. DeSantis was made out to be the worst person whoever lived during COVID by the media. What happened? People flocked to Florida from blue states and he won Florida by over 19% last month. Voters didn't buy what the media and Democrats said about him. He doesn't have the baggage Trump does, he doesn't constantly say stupid things, and he's more articulate.

Democrats can create baggage. Look how much was created about Russia with a phony dossier. To date the worst hit they've landed on him wasn't even a direct hit, it was the million dollar fine against the Trump org for taxes this week. That's like a drop in the bucket for him though, pretty hard to consider that a big win when they've been crying about his taxes for 6 years.

 

[GoIrish41]

It says that democrats in Pennsylvania would vote for a fire hydrant if it had a D next to it.

You ever been to Pennsylvania? They don’t call it Pennsyltucky for nothing.

 

[Blazers46]

It says that democrats in Pennsylvania would vote for a fire hydrant if it had a D next to it.

With dems it’s all about that D…

 

[GoIrish41]

Democratic Party playbook currently: anyone who opposes us is a Nazi/ fascist/ white supremacist

Also, vote for us. We're very inclusive and tolerant of all peoples.

Nah. Just the ones who plan coups, espouse violence and Christian nationalism. But I’m sure you just forgot about that stuff.

 

[Irish#1]

I guess Trump isn't alone. Even the leftists want to get in on the act.

Peru's President impeached and arrested after he attempts to dissolve Congress | CNN

Peru's President Pedro Castillo has been detained by Lima police, a source with knowledge of the case told CNNE, after lawmakers voted to oust him on Wednesday as he attempted to dissolve the legislative body and install an emergency government.

www.cnn.com