Yes, and why do you think that was. An immensely unpopular president who mismanaged the only crisis he was faced with.
Now do Biden, with roughly similar approval ratings but a bunch of economic misery under his watch, regardless of whether it's his fault or not, that's how the average voter will respond.
But I'm sure you'll be wailing "how could this have happened" for the next few election cycles...
Oh this trump supporting concerned guy is back, to tell us Trump and co will win. Change your gimmick yo.
I think post-2016 and, to some extent, 2020, turned the excuse from "how could this have happened" to "voters are bad people, stupid people, and we should feel good about speaking the truth about them." I don't think people will ask themselves "how could this have happened?"
2022 feels like a wave just because of Afghanistan, inflation, mask mandates, school closures, and an atrocious stalled legislative agenda. Yes, even if 90% of this forum feel quite deeply that Biden did his best and it's was the mean Republican's fault.
2024 feels more uncertain due to Trump's ability to play spoiler if he's not the nominee, and he loses head-to-head with most likely candidates if he is nominated. But maybe you have thoughts on the most obvious counterargument to predicting 2024.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time." "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
If they run Trump again in 2024, anyone who runs against him will win. I can guarantee it.
And it was basically a foregone conclusion that Republicans are going to win in 2022, but they are trying their fucking hardest to fucking lose with all these bullshit bills they are passing that are blatantly unconstitutional.
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We know the average voter is just as ignorant as you are. Blaming Biden for shit out of his control. What you want is a dictator, but want it named something else.
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Afghanistan is 100% on Trump, inflation is world wide, also not controlled by the president, there aren't any mask mandates, school closures happened under Trump, not under Biden, and the stalled legislative agenda is because of Republicans. There isn't a single thing that would make me want to vote a Republican EVER.
Why shouldn't we feel good about speaking the plain truth about people's motives? Because it hurts the feelings of fascists and bigots whose entire ideological goal is to create and foster human suffering, for its own sake? Sure seems like that's a win.
Afghanistan was a shitshow set in motion by Trump. Not Biden. Biden did fine with what he was handed.2022 feels like a wave just because of Afghanistan, inflation, mask mandates, school closures, and an atrocious stalled legislative agenda.
Inflation is the result of capitalist economics run amok, abusing a crisis to maximize returns to the wealthy at the expense of everyone else. Sure, Biden's hardly helped rein that in, but the Republicans think it's a good thing.
Mask mandates were absolutely necessary and if Biden's administration deserves any criticism on that front, it's in not being strict enough. Anyone disagreeing is a plague rat seeking to foster the spread of a deadly disease.
School closures? Which schools? Do you mean closing them for the pandemic? Yeah, that was necessary. Back to plague-rat ideas, I guess.
And an "atrocious legislative agenda"? There's no way Biden's agenda can even compete with the intentional cruelty-for-cruelty's-sake legislative agendas of Republican States over the last few years, between minority-suppressing voter laws and the current run of just outright punitive bigotry with no other motivation other than fostering human suffering at its core.
Sure, 2022's mid-terms and 2024 aren't fait accomplis, but that's because of how many Americans support the exploitative, abusive ideological stances of Republicans. Not for some other reason, for sake of the abusive exploitation and the directed harm against vulnerable minority groups, itself. That's a condemnation of those people, and I'm fully proud to make it; if someone voted for a "Don't Say Gay" type bill, they're a homophobic and transphobic bigot and a deeply amoral and evil person. Period. 100% of those people. There may be a lot of them, but that doesn't make them less evil.
You keep acting like this would only help the rich and even by your own source is not true. It's kind of amazing really that you show how that's not true and you keep saying it. Holy shit.
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Do you have one point of view that isn't either wrong or completely devoid of context and reasoning?
“You're not to be so blind with patriotism that you can't face reality. Wrong is wrong, no matter who does it or says it.”― Malcolm X
I watch them fight and die in the name of freedom. They speak of liberty and justice, but for whom? -Ratonhnhaké:ton (Connor Kenway)
Well, we can agree on that. I appreciate these rare times.
Just give others the strength of their convictions too.Afghanistan is 100% on Trump, inflation is world wide, also not controlled by the president, there aren't any mask mandates, school closures happened under Trump, not under Biden, and the stalled legislative agenda is because of Republicans. There isn't a single thing that would make me want to vote a Republican EVER.
The disproportionality has always been my point. I'm opposed to foolish tax and spend programs.
The two sides on most topics these days are so far apart that bridging that gap is almost impossible. Any earnest discussion is likely to get passionate, and those passions will turn to mutual accusations of bad faith, ignorance, or malevolence.
"I wish it need not have happened in my time." "So do all who live to see such times. But that is not for them to decide. All we have to decide is what to do with the time that is given us."
And yet, whenever we ask the "other side" to explain themselves without resorting to ignorant, bad faith malevolence, they get upset with us and act as if the question is somehow unfair or dishonest.
That's why I can so confidently state that the cruelty behind things like the "Don't Say Gay" laws is the entire point and intent of the laws. Because there isn't another explanation. Just deflections to the dogwhistles that don't hold water on even a basic level of scrutiny.
“Do not lose time on daily trivialities. Do not dwell on petty detail. For all of these things melt away and drift apart within the obscure traffic of time. Live well and live broadly. You are alive and living now. Now is the envy of all of the dead.” ~ Emily3, World of Tomorrow
Words to live by.
Still sticking with "lol highar numbar" I see. Considering twelve other people in addition to your own source have already pointed out the objective mistake you're making and you still can't see it, I'm going to suggest you take out a student loan and just declare myself the winner.
https://www.investopedia.com/financi...s-are-you.aspx
Middle Income is squarely in the $75k-$85k (that number is from 2016) during a period of time when there has been SEVERE wage stagnation and post-recession.
https://money.usnews.com/money/perso...c-class-system
Middle Class in this for a family of 3 is defined as $53-$106k
Instead of trying to make a bad faith argument and look this incredibly ignorant, let's get back to the original statement:
How is $75k - $100k "rich" because the argument here is that student loan forgiveness with a cap of $75-$100k is going to "favor the richest"
Talk about hyperbolic. Two countries are at war, and one of the countries is targeting civilians likely using terror for their benefit. It is a war crime, it is terrorism, it is an atrocity.
I think it is horrible, but I also do not think it is at the level of genocide. There is not a consensus on this yet from all sorts of people who study this very thing they all agree it is terrible though and whether you think it is a genocide or not does not take away from how fucked up the events are.
It is utter foolishness to think because someone says: "Well there are certainly horrible war crimes and targeting happening, but it may not amount to genocide since there are key points missing, though there are hints that it could become a genocide depending on rhetoric". It is a question of law, but regardless of law we can all agree the actions are abhorrent.
Also you said I am in full russia defence mode? What the fuck were you basing that bullshit on? The fuck is there to defend about Russia? Just because I did not say a longer statement about how it can become one, or how there are things missing... you know what else was missing? Me saying things in support of Russia and their actions.
If I say the Burmese are not actively doing x type of act against the Rohingya people, that does not suddenly mean I wholesale buy into the rhetoric of the Myanmar government.
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Notice how your original post did not define genocide but then you added a subsequent point which added aim of destroying that nation or group note how I said in essence, that indiscriminate killing in a war is not genocide, because it very well may not be, unless you add the extra caveat where the goal is not simply to win the war, even if through terror but is also to eradicate or destroy a group.
So my reply to your original post, was entirely correct, what you originally said was not genocide, your subsequent post this post, defines genocide better. The issue with Russia is the rhetoric seems genocidal so it can become that. The issue is: what is the actual motive of the war right now, land and resources? Or destruction of Ukrainians as a group, or a mix of the two? There is debate but none of that takes away from the issue.
If you think one can only care about something once it gets labeled as "genocide" that is not true. I can care about any atrocity based on the actions happening itself.
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I do not think many actions America has taken in the Middle East are genocide, even though they are mass killings of civilians, since the goal of those mass killings and targets often has to deal with maintaining power and influence in the region, they just do it with reckless abandon of the populace.
You know or you should know, just how fucking much I am against American military actions and how shit I find their foreign policy, do you think because I do not think of these actions as genocide by the American government, that therefore I am providing cover and defending their actions? The USA has also facilitated genocides, but I am uncertain if that would count as the USA committing genocide itself, or if the genocide falls entirely to the country committing it and not also the country selling them weapons. Yet even though I am uncertain whether I would count that as direct genocide being carried out by the USA or not, I am entirely against it, I do not need to define the overarching kind of atrocity before I feel condemnation.
I do not understand how you think it provides cover for human rights abuses. Blowing up a park with children, whether the aim was to wipe out the racial group, or to kill a guy you thought was a terrorist... the defining of genocide or war crime does not matter, because no matter what the act itself is fucking terrible and that will never change because one says warcrime and another says genocide.
Last edited by Themius; 2022-05-01 at 04:24 PM.
This isn't even new. It goes all the way back to the early Soviet Union, when they did the same effective thing via the Holodomor. The intent to stamp out Ukrainian culture and identity and replace it with Rus culture and identity has been an ongoing genocidal effort; Putin's invasion is just the latest egregious step in that program.