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they think Biden can be victorious against a Trump challenge. Like you....I have my doubts. The echo chamber inside the belt line is deaf to those living outside of that loony farm.

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I think you've hit the nail on the head, Jazzme. It's just that simple: Biden won once, he's a corporate Dem and a known quantity, so there we go. The DNC doesn't want to rock the boat or alienate donors. I don't doubt they're as afraid of TFG as they say they are, and they're hanging on for dear life to the guy they can count on (i.e., the one who does what the owners want). It IS an echo chamber.

Besides, polls taken a year out, with unknown variables, demographics, and methodology? PPPPFFFFTTTT!

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Who is TFG Denise?

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You know this, Dennis---we've discussed it before.

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"TFG is an abbreviation that stands for “The Former Guy.” TFG is specifically used to refer to former US President Donald Trump as a way to avoid mentioning him by name in online posts. TFG is typically used by people who oppose Trump to indicate disrespect for him, prevent additional attention, and avoid responses from his supporters."

https://www.dictionary.com/e/slang/tfg/

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author

I always thought it was "That Fucking Guy" :-)

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hahahahahahahaha

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Dec 6, 2023Liked by Bill Astore

I agree with you - the Democrat's rhetoric doesn't match pushing the incompetent Biden/Harris ticket as the only salvation of the country. But what is the focus of their argument?

For all the fear that is stoked about Trump as the Great Disruptor and The Greatest Threat Ever to Democracy, his first term showed him to be rather conventional like all modern Presidents - he passed a tax bill that favored the upper classes; he had Soleimani assassinated; and he allowed/pushed a huge government takeover of health care through the COVID pandemic. About his only real crimes were his boorishness and his inclination to go off the reservation at times and tell the truth - both of which caused the heads of the DC elites to explode.

A second term likely would be more or less the same. He will provide unquestioning support of Israel (just like Biden); nothing will fundamentally change for the elite class (just like Biden); and there will be the same questions about personal enrichment (just like Biden).

Perhaps the question of illegal immigration and the border - both which need addressing - would be a difference, but he lacks any philosophy of governance and self discipline to push something to completion.

He may surround himself with people more determined to seek revenge on his persecutors that would please his base, but at some point the emerging economic conditions (i.e., recession and collapse of the dollar) will overshadow even those witch hunts.

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This may be the best scenario we can hope for if Trump wins again.

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I generally agree with your conclusions here, though with some reservation about, "...he allowed/pushed a huge government takeover of health care...". I haven't observed anything of that.

Trump's recent rhetoric about his enemies (supposedly, the enemies of freedom) has been increasingly nasty and rather troubling; and if he had the competency, or if he empowered the wrong people, might be even dangerous. Yet like you, I suspect that lack of competency would dull his ability to follow what are no doubt part of his fantasies.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

That Trump allowed/pushed a huge government takeover of health care is bovine excrement, Roger. Thanks

Hey Roger - wadda you think? I know it's a hypothetical.

If Trump was the POTUS as we speak - would he cut Netanyahu off at his pockets?

No more US support and weapons/ bombs.

Effectively ending the genocide - it's not a "war".

I think Trump the man would - and be overrun by all the Dual Citizens in Congress.

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Dennis, to be honest, I think Trump would not substantially depart from what Biden has been doing w/r/t Israel. His appointments during his own term show me that he was willing to defer to the judgments of his (questionable) foreign policy team; and Israeli money is so much part of Washington's corruption that I don't think he'd buck it.

I base this conclusion on the fact that while on the campaign trail and in the early days of his Presidency, he made it clear that he favored better relations with Russia. Yet, in keeping with the preferences of people like Mike Pompeo and others, he continued a path towards conflict with Russia. After all, It was on his watch that the U.S. withdrew unilaterally from the INF Treaty, which, following the earlier withdrawal from the ABM Treaty and Obama's approval of a $1 Trillion upgrading of nuclear weapons (following U.S. installation of a puppet Ukraine government and promotion of NATO membership for Ukraine), signaled to Putin and the Kremlin that the U.S. was very close to achieving a nuclear check-mate of Russia. I have little doubt that the existential threat posed by these developments, along with the escalation of Ukraine's war in the Donbass and Ukraine's calls for retaking Crimea (and with it, Russia's critically-important seaport and naval base at Sevastopol) and steady refusal of the entire West to negotiate with Russia on its security concerns were very much determining factors leading to Russia's "SMO".

It could be argued that Trump was unable to appreciate the significance of all such developments, including his role, in this sequence of events. Nor was he likely able to fully comprehend how much of a threat they posed to Russia's national security. Nor that they certainly would lead to war instead of more business.

In any case, he was and, I think is, too easily manipulated and/or cognitively dissonant to carry through any of his stated intentions; and I think the same would be the case w/r/t the Middle East, where he already was in Israel's camp in ending Obama's U.S. agreement with Iran. I suspect that it is merely wishful thinking to expect much more from him.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 7, 2023

Thanks Roger,

I am torn to shreds by my friends and family (and Bill and Denise LOL) for my believe that if Trump had got a second term, the Ukrainian goat rope would not have started. He would of toned down the saber rattling towards China/Taiwan. And he would have reined in Israel after a coupla' weeks of Netanyahu's cruel disproportionate response to Oct 7.

I think DJT learned a lot in his first term. He is not a stupid man.

And I think, with one term's experience in the swamp under his belt, he will be less easily manipulated, wiser and less cognitively dissonant to actually be successful in carrying through his intentions in his second term.

I think the trick is for him to get the right people on his team. Dump the neocons like Newland, Blinken, Sullivan et al, and have people he can rely on for sound judgments, critically on foreign policy and economics.

And I think he's America's LAST and ONLY chance to stop it going down the gurgler - but only with a different Team than he had last time. Not with the puppeteers Biden currently has in the State Department and the Deep State in WA DC.

Who else is there with the name recognition of Donald J Trump? Orange man.

Trump needs to revive his old motto - "You're fired". "Clean house" as we say in the Construction Business. Like Elon Musk did at Twitter.

I like to think Trump is a humanitarian - and like the majority of the World's population, wants this genocide to stop. Unlike Biden, who is too senile to have a humanitarian brain cell left in his old body, and is manipulated by evil people.

And unlike Biden; Xi, Putin, Sunak, Macron et al, and Netanyahu will not blow him off as weak.

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What people rarely talk about is why the Democrats fear left-wing candidates. It is not because they worry they can't win, it is because they know they would win against the right-wing DNC candidates. It is all about maintaining the unregulated capitalism stranglehold on the government. It is why you hear constant screeching about the evils of socialism, when socialism just means implementing a less stratified, less oligarchical society. It would mean the end of billionaires, along with a great lessening of poverty and hunger. That can't be allowed, and it is the Blue Team who acts as the guardians of the status quo.

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Yes.

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Dec 7, 2023Liked by Bill Astore

Reminds me of the thought process as a kid. "If adults really believed in Hell, we'd be at church every day of the week." This realization set me on my way to getting out of having to go to Sunday school.

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author

Well put!

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Unfortunately, the Democratic Party is not its own, but is indebted to Wall Street, the MIC, AIPAC and other high rollers in this country. Biden has fulfilled their every wish - even on the limited progress on environmental and infrastructure issues. They like Joe. He's good for General Bullmoose and what's good for General Bullmoose is good for the USA. So the money is behind Joe.

Equally, or even more unfortunately, Joe is the best thing that could happen for Trump.

The sad reality is that neither of the two political parties represent the majority of Americans as they are both clients of big money. Worse, most American voters are loathe to give up the two party system as they live in fear that a vote for a third party candidate can only produce a win for the worst candidate. It's a worst case of catch-22.

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Actually, the it's not a Democratic Party paradox, its a paradox for the majority of Americans.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

There are a lot of lies told by the anti-Hamas mobs about the "war".*

(On Oct 7 Israeli women were deliberately shot in their vagina's.)

But even more told by the "Trump wants to be a Dictator for life" folks with Stage 3 TDS.

Robert De Niro Doesn’t Know Why He Hates Trump So Much!😝

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=OaVFD-TDez4

-

*Members of Israel's intelligence community expose the workings of Israel's war machine.

One by one the lies are being exposed. "+972 Magazine" is a good source for BV readers.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mIbxF7GXfHs

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Listening to Jimmy Done talk about DeNiro, his point was well stated - Trump is the only topic discussed by Democrats and those favoring the Democrats; the more talk there is about him the more his reelection is guaranteed.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

Off topic - sorry Bill.

Grinning Israeli War Vets Admit to Raping and Murdering Palestinians.

Jimmy Dore shows us stunning and appalling admissions coming from elderly Israeli vets. Smiling and laughing as they detail the atrocities they committed in the first Nakba.

Israeli's falsely accusing Hamas of atrocities like rape and killing babies is actually self-projection of their own acts and attitudes!

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=sWka3LDmsIk

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Well written, but have to ask, who is there out there who could be a stalwart Dem candidate.

Hairdo Newsom?

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Someone like Governor Gretchen Whitmer, perhaps?

Governors often do well as presidential candidates.

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What does she have to offer other than not senile like the incumbent?

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Not being senile and increasingly physically infirm: those are important qualities to have in a president!

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As a baseline of course, but was she a wise and successful governor. Once we are certain the candidate does not drool, it would be nice to see qualities of statesmanship, or stateswomanship.

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"There are perhaps Fifty"-- Bidens own words at his latest Presser!!! lol "But.., I'm gonna beat him..!" Incumbent Joe speaking with intense fervor...

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BBC reporting, "Biden says he's 'not sure' he'd be running for president if Trump wasn't"

So, the paradox continues.

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So, we'll either have Trump again, thanks to Biden, or Biden again, thanks to Trump. A closed-loop paradox?

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What a great time to be alive

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In the words of the cartoonist, anyone who would introduce logic into this conversation must be pretty unsure of himself. Ha ha ha.

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I like that. Do you have a source?

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Old cartoon. The original had a wife talking to her husband who is sitting in a chair. For some reason it struck me.

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Dec 7, 2023·edited Dec 7, 2023

What the establishment cliques clearly want at this point isn't Biden facing off against Trump, but Haley. Keeping Biden on the ticket almost surely guarantees her election. Any why not? She is just the right recipe for: 1) a woman president (at last); 2) one as grotesque a war monger has HRC would have been (and is); 3) one to carry the torch of exceptionalism into our inevitable demise; and 4) blaming it on every world leader who stands up to us.

I might have thought RFK Jr had a chance to upset the apple cart (finally) but his hardline on Israel has certainly put some early supporters off--and likely for good unless he has some "come to Jesus meeting" and changes his tune big time.

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Democracy?

The argument you present is based upon the presumption that we have a democracy. Both parties claim the other is a "threat" to what no longer exists. A democracy.The claimed threat maintains the illusion that we have a democracy. Accepting this fact is too horrible for Americans to face. If they did it would be the one thing to unite them in solidarity.

We're being fed a chocolate covered turd of hope by the boomers. The generations below them are going to be left to deal with the coming in progress climate disaster at the best of things. Those who are truly in power are at an age where they are betting they're going to miss the catastrophe because they will be dead. So why should they care?

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Dec 7, 2023·edited Dec 7, 2023Liked by Bill Astore

Yes...that's an important observation, about using the threat of loss of something we don't really have... which of course bolsters the falsehood that it exists and that those doing the warning actually care. The performance artist/musician Laurie Anderson wrote, "Language is a virus." Thinking about what she might have meant, I realized that it does indeed share some characteristics with a virus- in terms of its inexorable spread through living beings, and its potential dangers. Today's Americans, in particular, seem rather vulnerable to verbal manipulation by others. I suspect that has to do with the loss of critical thinking ability, instincts and other natural defense mechanisms that've been programmed out of so many.

And you're right, if Americans could face the harsh realities - including the all-important one that their trusted leaders have been lying to them, manipulating them - there might be that hopeful spark to galvanize unity for something more representative of the human spirit.

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Well said, Roger.

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Yes. We have the illusion of choice between Trump and Biden.

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As you ably point out, the contradiction between what the Democratic establishment says about the danger of Trump, while continuing to push Biden/Harris is crystal clear. As you suggest, while the Party would rather have Biden than Trump, TPWRM (The People Who Really Matter to them) won't really lose either way. They likely know that foreign policy will continue to be driven by neocon imperialists, that military spending will continue on its rapid trajectory upward, that fossil fuel subsidies will continue, and that such spending will be prioritized over public health, education, environmental protection or other public goods- no matter which is in the White House.

Those who hopefully think Trump would at least end the forever wars and/or stop new ones are engaging in purely wishful thinking. He doesn't have what it takes to do so, even if for a few minutes he actually once again thought it might be better to "make business, not war" (with nods to our VietNam-era chant , "make LOVE, not war").

The bottom line is that there'll be enough voters who are unquestioningly loyal to one side of the Duopoly or the other to make sure that nothing fundamentally changes. And steadily down the drain we'll go, barring some miraculous, unforseeable event. This will be true EVEN IF Trump isn't the GOP nominee, and Biden isn't the Dems'.

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

Congressman Matt Gaetz believes President Trump is in serious danger.

Recent liberal media publications are pushing the idea that Trump will become a dictator when he's re-elected. Like Hitler they are saying! No kidding!

Gaetz believes this creates an open season on Trump for Democrats to do something drastic.

Like assassinate him!

Dems go into PANIC mode over Trump and they are DESPERATE | Redacted with Clayton Morris

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=6GX2X3B7SlM

Starts at -1:08:45

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Dennis, it is rather obvious that D's (and their media mouthpieces) amplify TDS to frighten & thereby maintain hold of their flock. And the establishment always uses the "Hitler" tag to built up animus towards the target.

I don't think they'd martyr Trump... though with the CIA we've had for the last 60-some years, you can't ever be sure.... but even then I think they'd wait to see the election result first.

The problem I see is this: How do you know when Trump is just being Trump the blustering performer, and when he is actually speaking from any place resembling a heart? He has been increasingly speaking in rather blunt, vindictive fashion about locking up all the lefties (some of us here protest against wars, corporatist control of policy, etc.), and being willing to be dictator (if only for a day). Is he just doing his usual bit of theater, or is he serious?

The fact that his team is already getting major agenda direction from the Heritage Foundation and others is certainly not reassuring.

All of these folk frame the political landscape as a war against existential threats. And this kind of thinking should be deeply troubling.

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Yep, I agree Roger.

Too much "theater" from "Orangeman".

If I was his Campaign Manager, I would be advising him to tone that bullshit down.

But I still think he is the LAST and ONLY chance of stopping the US going down the gurgler.*

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*AUSTRALIAN NEW ZEALAND INFORMAL

be wasted or lost:

"before we know it, another $2 million will have gone down the gurgler"

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Dec 6, 2023·edited Dec 6, 2023

As a Canadian, I always watched as important self-interest, what was happening in that great Goliath South of the border, and especially during the 2 year cycle of Presidential Elections.

In 2016, I couldn't believe Americans would elect anyone President with so many character flaws as Donald Trump. He already showed himself to be a serial liar and a self-centred egomaniac. I already saw him as preaching Nihilism defined as

1a: a viewpoint that traditional values and beliefs are unfounded and that existence is senseless and useless

Nihilism is a condition in which all ultimate values lose their value.—

Ronald H. Nash

b: a doctrine that denies any objective ground of truth and especially of moral truths

2a: a doctrine or belief that conditions in the social organization are so bad as to make destruction desirable for its own sake independent of any constructive program or possibility

Trump and his followers are Nihilists, as this World is already heading down the Path to more disorder, uncertainty and ARMAGEDDON, also known as the Battle of the Great Day of God Almighty, as far as I can tell by the leading Indicators.

But of that day and that hour knows no man, no, not the angels which are in heaven, neither the Son, but the Father.

Matthew 24:36; Mark 13:32.

Being mindful of that in 1976 when The Kansas City Times interviewed me for the Historical Newspaper Record of September 13, 1976, publishing, "There are 30 months before the fate of the world will be sealed with EITHER Destruction OR the Universal Brotherhood of Man,¨ he said. ¨The 30 month figure concerned a Treaty between Israel and Egypt."

NOTE: This does not say Armageddon happens in 30 months from the article.

Not 29 or 31, but exactly 30 months later, in March 1979, history shows a Treaty between Israel and Egypt was signed. The Camp David Accord.

History shows talks broke down on the 12th day and no Treaty was to be signed.

Begin and Sadat were leaving. It was on the 13th Day, as in the date of the Article and the picture accompanying it, an unexpected window of opportunity appeared and opened the way for the Treaty to be signed.

This signified the Universal Brotherhood part of the quote.

The 1979 Iranian Revolution happened in the 29th month from the September 13, 1976 Public record. There is no doubt Israel and the US is scapegoating Iran for what happened October 7 and the Destruction part of the 1976 record appears immanent if you believe what the MSM is Propagating and Reporting.

Obviously I did not, do not, have the POWER and Influence to orchestrate History to conform to that 1976 Timeline, but I would be derelict in my Duty not to point out the Historical facts as a Messenger then and now.

It is a FACT of my Curriculum Vitae, which started that February 1, 1975 when I came alive to God within, the FUNDAMENTAL of the Christian Faith, the Secret Service called me out of the compressed crowd of Republicans in the Lobby of The CROWN Centre Hotel for questioning.

They were all looking up to the Secret Service restricted Mezzanine having the President's Podium set up, expecting the President of the United States to be standing there any minute.

To my great surprise, instead of questioning me in some anteroom, the Secret Service Agent led me right to the President's Podium and questioned me in view of all those Republicans below. He asked me if I was Jesus Christ. Having NO ILLUSIONS of that then and now, in a nanosecond said, "NO!" The next question was, "Who are you then? a Prophet?" I couldn't answer as quickly and definitely because I didn't know.

The Secret Service has the record of that 1 night in my Live buried somewhere in their Archives.

I say this not as a boast, but simply as a Fact in my life for what it represented. All these 48 years later, I'm still trying to make sense of it all.

From the September 13 Kansas Times record 2 weeks after the end of the Republican Convention, my Image standing at the President's Podium was as Revolutionary as the 1976-1776 Revolution.

https://rayjc.com/2013/09/01/signs-of-the-times/

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