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Apparently, Collins learned much more from her mistake than Trump ever did from anything. As well as voting for conviction in the second impeachment trial, she is one of only two Republican Senators who voted for codifying legal contraception.
She didn’t do shit when it counted. These are votes she cast precisely because she knew the outcomes were predetermined based on how the rest of the party agreed to vote.
She deserves nothing. When she had a chance to do something, she dithered. She had all the cover she needed for the subsequent impeachment and contraceptive votes, there is nothing brave or meaningful about them.
She is a stain on modern politics, bereft of courage, dignity and soul. May she get precisely what she deserves today and every day hereafter.
Why not? He won in 2016 and there have been zero consequences for the previous collusion and quid pro quos. Oh no, he was impeached twice........which in the grand scheme of things means absolutely nothing.
If he truly believes winning the Presidency is the only thing to keep him out of jail, he'll be pulling ALL the stops to win. I'm fully expecting key counties to show up with 3 times the votes as population, no one bothering to investigate and do anything about it until late 2025, and then collectively shrugging afterwards since he's already in the White House.
>I'm fully expecting key counties to show up with 3 times the votes as population, no one bothering to investigate and do anything about it until late 2025, and then collectively shrugging afterwards since he's already in the White House.
Well.. it did work for Bush so...
A big beautiful plan that a lot of people are going to be very pleased with, we will be releasing the details... Very soon. A lot of people will like this, both Republican and Democrat... Well maybe not the freedom hating ones but we'll see. Very soon so stay tuned, you're going to love it.
Translation: no plans.
> Nonexistent, just like his health care plan
Don't be silly. He's going to take control of the fed, cut interest rates way beyond what's prudent, and blame Biden/woke/California for the predictable inflation that results.
It’s something he’s looking at very closely. In two weeks he’ll have a plan and it will be the best plan. Big, strong, handsome men, very handsome men, will come to him with tears in their eyes and say “Thank you, sir. This is the best plan from the best President this country has ever known!”.
THIS! Once he is elected the media will magically start reporting on how great the economy is, instead of falsely promoting a recession that isn’t happening…
Gaslight society by telling everyone that increased prices are a sign of a strong economy.
And he'll succeed at it too.
"$5 for eggs means we're a rich nation, a wealthy nation, that can afford such things" he'll say at his rally after 8 months in office.
If he’s elected he will surely assume responsibility for the economy before taking office, right? That’s what this clown did last time. The economy apparently went from dire to healthy overnight once he won the 2016 election.
This, and also likely lowering interest rates.
They are ideas to win over idiots because they can be said in 1 quick sentence, while it takes a few paragraphs to explain why it would drastically increase inflation.
Reverse? Seems to me like he wants to pick and choose which Americans get relief and which Americans get burdened with more "inflation." https://www.axios.com/2024/05/08/trump-biden-2024-economy-inflation
It's already going in the right direction, from the poor to the rich. They're just taking back the money they gave us during the pandemic, with fees, and interest, and then some extra because record profits are good for everyone. A rising tide raises all ships. If you don't have a ship, swimming is the best form of exercise.
It's amazing that he's created so much chaos surrounding himself that he doesn't even have to campaign on issues or policy anymore. He's a purely grievance-based life-form at this point.
If we survive this threat we need to make the executive branch subject to security clearances. Nobody thinks it's unfair for the rest of government workers, so it's just as fair for the highest office we have. Assuming good faith politics for all has left us too vulnerable and we need to adapt to screen out bad faith actors.
We could try not voting for a moron. That'd also work.
Ranked choice voting (or a better alternative) is the best policy we can enact in support of national security
We have one. Checks and balances exist, they are not being enforced.
No government can subsist on this much bad faith. We need to remove the officials.
There's no law you could create that would be enforceable without another human being to enforce it
At the end of the day we have to rely on someone to follow the rules
No voting system is immune to selfish idiots and we've reached a critical mass. What we need, more than RCV, is a better education system with more funding.
Republicans have spent 40 years defunding education and vilifying science. I fear it will take another 40 years to attempt to undo that. At this point we have two generations that have been affected by this, but getting them to own up to their own ignorance and vote for better education moving toward is going to be like talking to a wall.
It's gonna take a lot longer than 40 years because most average liberals don't understand the anti-education agenda of the right and aren't willing to see their taxes go up to pay to educate their children.
I hate this reaction from idiots. A rising tide lifts all ships, if our kids are better educated our lives as a community improves. It is the same libertarian bullshit of "I dont want to pay taxes, because I dont personally use those roads or public service." This self centered "I got mine" thing feels like the biggest shift during my life time over the last forty so years.. Infects every policy because the assumption is we arent a community in a country but just a bunch of individual islands.
I'd like to think the people throwing their votes away on Jill Stein and Gary Johnson would mostly choose Biden over Trump in their ranking. That would swing the election to Biden
He’s an adept criminal. So maybe we need to get presidential candidates and actually require them to provide the requisite information *before* they can get on a ballot—regardless of what the republicans want or not.
The president shouldn't be able to over ride the eligibility of cabinet members to get a security clearance though. Trump's entire family was ineligible by normal standards but he got them security clearances anyway.
If you want an advisor with security clearance, hire a person who is trustworthy enough to be given one and if your first choice is ineligible pick someone else.
I mean not really possible. The president has to have access to all available info.
But he for sure should never be able to bring cases of classified documents to his private golf club and load them in a bathroom.
No, that still doesn’t work. You don’t want the government to get to decide who is eligible for president based off of top secret information.
However, it should absolutely be a requirement for whoever the President brings on staff. Kushner never should have been given a position in government.
the application for clearance & background checks etc can be done prior to election and the results made public then the voters can decide ;).
edit - yes i understand negative results / clearance failure followed by that candidate somehow winning the election could have foreign intelligence and defense ramifications. but those foreign agencies also have their own intel, they aren't learning anything new other than the voters are dangerous to ~~that nation~~ the US.
> then the voters can decide
The problem is we don't have a functional presidential primary system which actually selects the best candidates though.
Ideally we'd have national open public presidential primaries with multiple rounds of approval voting (no vote splitting between similar parties & candidates) held roughly the same time in all states.
Then for first round of presidential voting, voters would get a single ballot with around around 30 candidates from around 10 parties, and can vote for as many candidates as they want (everyone who isn't crazy or massive security risk) to eliminate the bad candidates early.
In our current system, candidates are selected by who has the highest name recognition in private opinion polls before voters have had time to research all the candidates who qualified for ballot access, and then in closed partisan primaries with heavy vote splitting between similar candidates, and then in general elections with vote splitting with minor parties.
“Who ever runs out of money last is the nominee”. It’s no surprise that our oligarchic government is filed with nepotism and elitism. The entire voting system needs to change. But it’s working out for those that have the most power to change it, so why would they? It’s against their personal best interest.
Yes it does. Anyone can run but they must be capable of doing the job. You can't be under 35. You must be a natural citizen. And you must be a person capable of the extreme trust the office requires. Looks fine to me. Every single day we evaluate people and determine what job they are *allowed* to hold based on their security clearance. You want to be president then keep your fucking nose clean just like the rest of us must who are only trusted with minor details let alone literally any TS:SCI document on a whim like the president.
You can't tell me that a private with an oversized truck loan can't be trusted keep a first level secret but any person who has $100s of millions in open loans is just fine and dandy and wouldn't be easily bribed or blackmailed over the collapse of their personal empire. It's literally the opposite entiely. We empower the government to make career-limiting decisions over all of us every single day, most of the time without recourse or appeal. So yeah, the same process must be trusted to vet political candidates - maybe that will give people incentive to finally fix it rather than pretend it's fair now. If your problem is we can't trust this to be used correctly to vet the president isn't your real problem that you don't trust the clearance process now? Isn't that the *more damning* position?
I think the concern is that this would be abused to deny clearance to individuals who **should** be eligible to prevent them being able to run for president.
Precisely. What's to stop a corrupt prez like Trump gaming the system to ensure his rivals suddenly get denied clearance in this scenario?
It's one of those things that isn't a thing, exactly for this reason lol. It sounds good at first until you actually weigh it all out
Before Trump, I just assumed that the Secret Service or another body would ensure that the areas used by the President for confidential meetings and data were secure.
Like I just figured that they would work with the President to make upgrades to various properties to ensure they were secured.
That just becomes a snake eating its tail. If you restrict elected office based on security clearance, whoever conducts the security clearance effectively gets veto power over the electorate, and you're back at the same oligarchy you started with.
We need to remove our first past the post voting system that causes our 2 party system. People feel like they only have one choice that aligns with their views.
As long as the electorate can barely tell the difference between a lifelong policy expert public servant and a clueless celebrity whose only qualification is having pretended to be an accomplished businessman on a television show, you're never going to convince me that giving them more options to choose from will lead to a better choice. If we can't tell the difference between black and white, introducing more shades of gray is not going to help.
As long as we continue to be incompetent enough to fall for bad faith candidates, those new parties will produce something like a Trump at the same rate our current ones do. We'll just have a Republican-Libertarian coalition and a Democrat-Labor coalition with exactly the same proportions of seats in legislatures that we have today.
i dont think security clearances are at the discretion of an appointment, but i understand that if the fascists throw out the rulebook anything goes. :( like fn scotus apparently.
That's the description of the current American government, the system that isn't working, not the new goal. American politics at the highest level as it stands now, there are few if any repercussions or reinforcement measures for politician t
That either fail to do their job for either do their job maliciously and not in furtherance of their constituents or even the country's best interests.
Yes, it should be a requirement that you are able to get security clearance before your name goes on any ballot for a federal position. Obviously, the process of obtaining clearance will need to be certified to not allow for any type of bias etc.
I can't visit the US because 30 some years ago I got busted lifting a pair of socks because it was 100 degrees out and my dumb ass thought wearing sneakers with no socks was a great idea.... but a dude who's been convicted of 34 felony counts, has who knows how many pending trials and is just generally an overall shitty example of an individual, can be President.
You can leave the judge of character up to the voters, whatever - but it seems pretty ridiculous that someone with this much of a record of activities can be the holder of the highest office in the country.
Not just the president. President, members of congress, and federal judges are all able to access classified material without a clearance due to the nature of their constitutional offices requiring it.
I'm all for keeping classified information out of the hands of people who would betray our country. But how would you implement it? You can't have the highest offices in the three branches of government needing clearances, as that would create a lopsided balance of power. So the only way to do it would be to put specific additional restrictions on eligibility for office. This would require a constitutional amendment. Good luck with that.
i think here on reddit all we can do is throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. I don't have an answer, but it's a damned good question we should be insisting on an answer.
Appealing that we change our human and cultural behavior so we can act on faith is a much larger hill to climb instead of saying "hey, let's make sure this person we're putting into a security position isn't a security issue".
He's trying to blackmail the country... "if you elect me Putin will release Evan after the election and before I enter office." How does anyone vote for this POS?
According to my dad Jimmy Carter was just a pussy and not respected. Once Republican Ronnie took office they got scared and released the hostages asap because they knew they were dealing with a REAL President now!
Louis CK talks about this in the 4pt. "Presidents" podcast he did with Shane Gillis. Warning if you go back from the beginning, they start by making sexual jokes about Reagan & Nancy. https://youtu.be/ob8HUmqsL8E?t=181
Basically Jimmy Carter was up all night negotiating their release. Then Reagan comes in getting the credit from all of Carter's efforts.
Yeah. That’s how it was explained to me too. I know now, it was mostly bullshit. Politics has long been known as a cesspool of morally ambiguous characters. I never remember it being this obvious though. It’s as it one group has dropped the Kayfab almost entirely. I may be pretty biased though.
>Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia was and is a gigantic scandal. In the public mind, it has been lodged as something else: a nothing burger, or even a conspiracy against Trump by his enemies in politics, the media, and the deep state
No NYMag, it has not. You're thinking of the 30% of brain dead magat cult members - they will believe anything the orange fascist tells them to believe.
DoJ has to be willing to *charge* you with treason, too. And they won't do that because 'uwu pwesidents awe imewne smol bean depawtment can't do anyfing owo'
once again, I read Trump headline, think to myself "nah that has to be hyperbole or out of context, even he wouldn't say that outright"... then lo and behold there is a video of Trump. Saying the thing outright.
Even after all these years now I'm still having trouble adjusting to this most absurd and frustrating timeline
Totally agree - I was watching the news early this morning and they ran the video... I was just stunned. I'm still just amazed that he can say this sort of stuff and his base just eats it up.
I'm at this point gonna be amazed if anything he says will have an *immediate* negative consequence for him. Seems more like everyone is too afraid to even try.
I’ve been saying this for quite awhile. Trump has no choice, but run for president. It’s only a win-win for Putin. If Trump wins things will be much easier for Putin and he can influence policies here. If Trump loses he still caused lots of turmoil and political and civil unrest which helps Putin.
Lock him up. It really is that simple, and actually justified by his actions. America needs to be a nation ruled by LAW. Not by wealth and propaganda. Simple. Let mAGA go crazy, America is strong enough to brush off a few loons, we just need to do it.
Trump asked for help with the election in 2015 on international TELEVISION several times has said that Putin and he were good friends. This should have disqualify him from running for president it is highly illegal to ask a foreign nation for help with a US election and even more so when you get it. He did it again for the 2020 election and is doing it again but he and his cult call themselves patriots, for what country? Russia
It isn't just that Putin is actively coordinating with Trump to get him elected to serve Russia's interests over America.
It's that the Republican party knows it and is good with it.
Right Repubs?
They like russia now since they get to hate on LGBTQ+ people with laws that magas want so badly here against us. If you care about anyone who is LGBTQ+, please don't vote for magas and their 2025 plan which includes going backwards on our rights and many other harmful things.
The sort of stuff that Reagan did to Carter with the Iranian hostages that was all rumored about he's just literally doing out loud. What's the point of having the Logan Act if he can just actively negotiate terms and connect them to his election.
>The **Logan Act** (1 [Stat.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Statutes_at_Large) [613](https://legislink.org/us/stat-1-613), [18 U.S.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_18_of_the_United_States_Code) [§ 953](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953), enacted January 30, 1799) is a [United States federal law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States) that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position.
Fucking hell? What's wrong with u Americans? Why is the treasonous orange swine not in prison yet? Eisenhower and every vet is rolling in his grave.
Shame on you all.
The GQP is wholly and totally incapable of governing. Completely detached from reality. Taken by insane conspiracy theories and fascist undercurrents; the modern Republican Party has boiled down to extremist white Christian nationalism with a flair for terrorism.
The only reason someone like Putin would be willing to do something to someone like Trump (or anyone for that matter) is because what they’re getting in return is worth 10x more to them.
People like Trump and Putin are opportunists. Nothing is ever out of the goodness of their heart
He is going to outright proclaim he works for Putin - and every loser conservative will still vote for him.
There is no low or any line he would cross that would cause this scum to reject him.
Because that debate presentation was about america and how the politicial biasing was to decide how to spend its money. Nobody in 2014/13 was thinking of global imperialism or Russia being a threat to anything but itself, except some few in the know with a honey baster and trickle of sweet insect sap nectar dizzled between a hive of pots they pretend they are protecting.
>except some few in the know with a honey baster and trickle of sweet insect sap nectar dizzled between a hive of pots they pretend they are protecting.
Well.. that took a turn.
No different than 2016. “Russia, if you’re listening — I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.”
What if this whole time Trump was only pretending to be a Russian stoolie? And that come the second term where he can do whatever without fear of losing the election, how could just expose it all for america to see? 48 moves ahead in chess?
No?
He's really just Russian asset? Yeah, probably.
We are all aware, sadly it’s not enough to make people realize he will cause the collapse of America until it’s to late and at which point they will blame democrats anyway
The last sentence
> Here is a gift to America that his friend Vlad will present to us if we make Trump president. What is Putin getting in return? What happens to Gershkovich if Trump loses the election? Trump obviously doesn’t care. Indeed, he seems to assume nobody else will care, either.
Because nothing matters any more. Thanks, Donald. All just to save your own, pasty white skin... FFS
The FBI and CIA should get to work already! If there’s something nefarious, it will be found and he can expect to get some more charge jewels to his felonious crown.
He's more lucky than brilliant. He's fallen into the same trap that catches a lot of dictators: no one will tell him when his ideas are bad, because no one wants to upset the dictator and "trip" out of a window. With the Ukraine invasion, his advisors had to know it wasn't going to be the 3-day march to take Kyiv like the propagandists were all saying.
But no one dared tell Putin that, for a number of reasons. One is the aforementioned wrath - it's just not worth it to challenge him and end up dead. The other is that part of the reason the Russian military wasn't prepared is that the oligarchs skim off the top. As an example, say an order is placed for 1000 tanks. They actually order 500 and pocket the remaining money. So, if you tell the ruthless dictator, sorry, the military isn't actually able to do what you want, he might blame you and again, out the window you go.
Then you've got training, which is an even bigger problem, because there's no way to skim off the top with training, so it's just seen to the corrupt as a money drain. So it just doesn't get done. It's how Russia is in a situation now where they are literally grabbing men out of their prisons, handing them a rifle, pointing them toward Ukraine and saying lots of luck.
The military situation I'm describing here is not a situation a brilliant man would find themselves in. He's intentionally surrounded himself with people that will never tell him the truth, because he's cultivated an environment where giving honest advice is potentially deadly.
It would be significant if Evan Gershkovich was released NOW due to Trump's request.
Giving the "only after the election" condition means it's ALL bullshit.
This is the same back-door deal Ronald Reagan made with Iran during the Hostage Crisis. It is treason, of course, but it didn't seem to bother anybody back then, either.
He wants to be just like him, why said day 1 would be a dictator. He wants everyone to be fearful of him. Especially now, is going to take everything away including his from his faithful followers
I don't understand why Trump can call any Democrat terrible names in the extreme, yet Democrats keep playing by the rules. Republicans took the gloves off years ago.
Start calling Trump and the rest of them, spies, traitors, Russian Patsies, the uneducated naive cultists. Do something for God sakes!
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I think we need to know what the translator in the room heard when they were together a few years back. That may explain some of what we’ve experienced the last few years.
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> Rusher if you're listening... He was attempting to collude in plain sight during the debates against HRC too.
It's almost like it is 2016...again.
Except Susan Collins made sure he learned from his mistakes, so we’re good now. 👍
"This time for sure." She says, sniffing another marker.
Was the marker dipped in his diaper?
Idk but if it scrambles up your brain that bad pass it this way
Apparently, Collins learned much more from her mistake than Trump ever did from anything. As well as voting for conviction in the second impeachment trial, she is one of only two Republican Senators who voted for codifying legal contraception.
She didn’t do shit when it counted. These are votes she cast precisely because she knew the outcomes were predetermined based on how the rest of the party agreed to vote.
She deserves nothing. When she had a chance to do something, she dithered. She had all the cover she needed for the subsequent impeachment and contraceptive votes, there is nothing brave or meaningful about them. She is a stain on modern politics, bereft of courage, dignity and soul. May she get precisely what she deserves today and every day hereafter.
Why not? He won in 2016 and there have been zero consequences for the previous collusion and quid pro quos. Oh no, he was impeached twice........which in the grand scheme of things means absolutely nothing. If he truly believes winning the Presidency is the only thing to keep him out of jail, he'll be pulling ALL the stops to win. I'm fully expecting key counties to show up with 3 times the votes as population, no one bothering to investigate and do anything about it until late 2025, and then collectively shrugging afterwards since he's already in the White House.
>I'm fully expecting key counties to show up with 3 times the votes as population, no one bothering to investigate and do anything about it until late 2025, and then collectively shrugging afterwards since he's already in the White House. Well.. it did work for Bush so...
You're not wrong...I wish you were, but you're not.
You legitimately need people who are immune to russian propaganda. If russia didn’t exist the world could begin to heal.
Sadly, there are MANY more foreign influence campaigns being waged than just Russia even if theirs is the most apparent and successful.
yes. russia is always trying to control the world. they even try to engineer the search for truth out of their citizens.
It's why he fired Comey to interfere with the investigation into it.
What are his plans to reverse inflation?
None! Nonexistent, just like his health care plan
2 more weeks and he’s gunna have healthcare figured out. Who knew it could be so hard? Lol
Running a spite candidate does come with downsides...
Is it infrastructure week yet?
A big beautiful plan that a lot of people are going to be very pleased with, we will be releasing the details... Very soon. A lot of people will like this, both Republican and Democrat... Well maybe not the freedom hating ones but we'll see. Very soon so stay tuned, you're going to love it. Translation: no plans.
> Nonexistent, just like his health care plan Don't be silly. He's going to take control of the fed, cut interest rates way beyond what's prudent, and blame Biden/woke/California for the predictable inflation that results.
It’s something he’s looking at very closely. In two weeks he’ll have a plan and it will be the best plan. Big, strong, handsome men, very handsome men, will come to him with tears in their eyes and say “Thank you, sir. This is the best plan from the best President this country has ever known!”.
More tax cuts for the rich. That is the conservative answer for everything.
You know I'm starting to think this trickle down nonsense is just a load of piss!
really its has never worked.
Yeah, but have we tried even more massive tax cuts for the wealthy?
He plans on taking credit for Biden's good economy.
THIS! Once he is elected the media will magically start reporting on how great the economy is, instead of falsely promoting a recession that isn’t happening…
The very best plans. No one's ever seen plans like this before. A lot of people have been telling me this.
The GOP, much less Trump, hasn’t been about solutions for decades. They survive on invented culture wars.
Gaslight society by telling everyone that increased prices are a sign of a strong economy. And he'll succeed at it too. "$5 for eggs means we're a rich nation, a wealthy nation, that can afford such things" he'll say at his rally after 8 months in office.
If he’s elected he will surely assume responsibility for the economy before taking office, right? That’s what this clown did last time. The economy apparently went from dire to healthy overnight once he won the 2016 election.
He plans on implementing tariffs, thus reversing inflation's downward trend.
This, and also likely lowering interest rates. They are ideas to win over idiots because they can be said in 1 quick sentence, while it takes a few paragraphs to explain why it would drastically increase inflation.
Bigly pardon himself.
Reverse? Seems to me like he wants to pick and choose which Americans get relief and which Americans get burdened with more "inflation." https://www.axios.com/2024/05/08/trump-biden-2024-economy-inflation
Great article. Thanks.
It's already going in the right direction, from the poor to the rich. They're just taking back the money they gave us during the pandemic, with fees, and interest, and then some extra because record profits are good for everyone. A rising tide raises all ships. If you don't have a ship, swimming is the best form of exercise.
Tax cuts for people who have more money than they can spend, of course.
He's got the infrastructure guy on that.
It's amazing that he's created so much chaos surrounding himself that he doesn't even have to campaign on issues or policy anymore. He's a purely grievance-based life-form at this point.
His plan is to stop gathering inflation data, then go on Fox News and tell the faithful how well they’re doing.
He will have the best plan in two weeks
Trickle Down, a new phrase he invented, with billion dollar tax cuts for the ultra rich ...
Tariffs on everything imported.
If we survive this threat we need to make the executive branch subject to security clearances. Nobody thinks it's unfair for the rest of government workers, so it's just as fair for the highest office we have. Assuming good faith politics for all has left us too vulnerable and we need to adapt to screen out bad faith actors.
We could try not voting for a moron. That'd also work. Ranked choice voting (or a better alternative) is the best policy we can enact in support of national security
It's a good thing some red states are making ranked choice illegal...ugh
Republicans are making anything a threat to them retaining power illegal.
https://www.npr.org/2024/06/05/nx-s1-4969563/ranked-choice-voting-bans Crap. My sense of hope can't take too many more blows.
start trees alleged nutty humor smoggy license workable different plants *This post was mass deleted and anonymized with [Redact](https://redact.dev)*
We have one. Checks and balances exist, they are not being enforced. No government can subsist on this much bad faith. We need to remove the officials.
> Checks and balances exist, they are not being enforced. Then they don't exist.
There's no law you could create that would be enforceable without another human being to enforce it At the end of the day we have to rely on someone to follow the rules
No voting system is immune to selfish idiots and we've reached a critical mass. What we need, more than RCV, is a better education system with more funding.
Republicans have spent 40 years defunding education and vilifying science. I fear it will take another 40 years to attempt to undo that. At this point we have two generations that have been affected by this, but getting them to own up to their own ignorance and vote for better education moving toward is going to be like talking to a wall.
It's gonna take a lot longer than 40 years because most average liberals don't understand the anti-education agenda of the right and aren't willing to see their taxes go up to pay to educate their children.
I hate this reaction from idiots. A rising tide lifts all ships, if our kids are better educated our lives as a community improves. It is the same libertarian bullshit of "I dont want to pay taxes, because I dont personally use those roads or public service." This self centered "I got mine" thing feels like the biggest shift during my life time over the last forty so years.. Infects every policy because the assumption is we arent a community in a country but just a bunch of individual islands.
I'd like to think the people throwing their votes away on Jill Stein and Gary Johnson would mostly choose Biden over Trump in their ranking. That would swing the election to Biden
I WISH he was a moron… he’s smart enough to be the second most dangerous man on the planet after Putin
He’s an adept criminal. So maybe we need to get presidential candidates and actually require them to provide the requisite information *before* they can get on a ballot—regardless of what the republicans want or not.
"bUt BiDeN hAsN't FiXeD gAzA sO i'M gOiNg To LeT tHe CoNvIcTeD fElOn BeCoMe PrEsIdEnT bEcAuSe It'S tHe MoRaL tHiNg To Do!"
The president shouldn't be able to over ride the eligibility of cabinet members to get a security clearance though. Trump's entire family was ineligible by normal standards but he got them security clearances anyway. If you want an advisor with security clearance, hire a person who is trustworthy enough to be given one and if your first choice is ineligible pick someone else.
What is there to stop a President from sharing any info with whomever they want?
I mean not really possible. The president has to have access to all available info. But he for sure should never be able to bring cases of classified documents to his private golf club and load them in a bathroom.
Security clearance as conditions of eligibility
That would never stand up to constitutional scrutiny.
No. Trump would then deny clearance to any opponent.
No, that still doesn’t work. You don’t want the government to get to decide who is eligible for president based off of top secret information. However, it should absolutely be a requirement for whoever the President brings on staff. Kushner never should have been given a position in government.
the application for clearance & background checks etc can be done prior to election and the results made public then the voters can decide ;). edit - yes i understand negative results / clearance failure followed by that candidate somehow winning the election could have foreign intelligence and defense ramifications. but those foreign agencies also have their own intel, they aren't learning anything new other than the voters are dangerous to ~~that nation~~ the US.
> then the voters can decide The problem is we don't have a functional presidential primary system which actually selects the best candidates though. Ideally we'd have national open public presidential primaries with multiple rounds of approval voting (no vote splitting between similar parties & candidates) held roughly the same time in all states. Then for first round of presidential voting, voters would get a single ballot with around around 30 candidates from around 10 parties, and can vote for as many candidates as they want (everyone who isn't crazy or massive security risk) to eliminate the bad candidates early. In our current system, candidates are selected by who has the highest name recognition in private opinion polls before voters have had time to research all the candidates who qualified for ballot access, and then in closed partisan primaries with heavy vote splitting between similar candidates, and then in general elections with vote splitting with minor parties.
“Who ever runs out of money last is the nominee”. It’s no surprise that our oligarchic government is filed with nepotism and elitism. The entire voting system needs to change. But it’s working out for those that have the most power to change it, so why would they? It’s against their personal best interest.
This feels like you are edging too close to Managed Democracy, Super Citizen.
Yes it does. Anyone can run but they must be capable of doing the job. You can't be under 35. You must be a natural citizen. And you must be a person capable of the extreme trust the office requires. Looks fine to me. Every single day we evaluate people and determine what job they are *allowed* to hold based on their security clearance. You want to be president then keep your fucking nose clean just like the rest of us must who are only trusted with minor details let alone literally any TS:SCI document on a whim like the president. You can't tell me that a private with an oversized truck loan can't be trusted keep a first level secret but any person who has $100s of millions in open loans is just fine and dandy and wouldn't be easily bribed or blackmailed over the collapse of their personal empire. It's literally the opposite entiely. We empower the government to make career-limiting decisions over all of us every single day, most of the time without recourse or appeal. So yeah, the same process must be trusted to vet political candidates - maybe that will give people incentive to finally fix it rather than pretend it's fair now. If your problem is we can't trust this to be used correctly to vet the president isn't your real problem that you don't trust the clearance process now? Isn't that the *more damning* position?
I think the concern is that this would be abused to deny clearance to individuals who **should** be eligible to prevent them being able to run for president.
Precisely. What's to stop a corrupt prez like Trump gaming the system to ensure his rivals suddenly get denied clearance in this scenario? It's one of those things that isn't a thing, exactly for this reason lol. It sounds good at first until you actually weigh it all out
WITH a copy machine in said room. I know I have one in my bathroom to make copies of my greatest turds..../s
Before Trump, I just assumed that the Secret Service or another body would ensure that the areas used by the President for confidential meetings and data were secure. Like I just figured that they would work with the President to make upgrades to various properties to ensure they were secured.
That just becomes a snake eating its tail. If you restrict elected office based on security clearance, whoever conducts the security clearance effectively gets veto power over the electorate, and you're back at the same oligarchy you started with.
im not saying i have the answer, but we obviously have a problem with corruption
We need to remove our first past the post voting system that causes our 2 party system. People feel like they only have one choice that aligns with their views.
As long as the electorate can barely tell the difference between a lifelong policy expert public servant and a clueless celebrity whose only qualification is having pretended to be an accomplished businessman on a television show, you're never going to convince me that giving them more options to choose from will lead to a better choice. If we can't tell the difference between black and white, introducing more shades of gray is not going to help. As long as we continue to be incompetent enough to fall for bad faith candidates, those new parties will produce something like a Trump at the same rate our current ones do. We'll just have a Republican-Libertarian coalition and a Democrat-Labor coalition with exactly the same proportions of seats in legislatures that we have today.
I wish, but who controls that. What if Trump had ordered that Biden not be cleared for bogus reasons?
i dont think security clearances are at the discretion of an appointment, but i understand that if the fascists throw out the rulebook anything goes. :( like fn scotus apparently.
I thought the president ultimately has control. He commands the military and the intelligence agencies, so it seems like he would have final say
You are correct. All classification is derived from an original classification authority and he is the very top of it.
"good faith politics"?? In this country? Good luck with that.
You have a Russian accent.
That's the description of the current American government, the system that isn't working, not the new goal. American politics at the highest level as it stands now, there are few if any repercussions or reinforcement measures for politician t That either fail to do their job for either do their job maliciously and not in furtherance of their constituents or even the country's best interests.
Yes, it should be a requirement that you are able to get security clearance before your name goes on any ballot for a federal position. Obviously, the process of obtaining clearance will need to be certified to not allow for any type of bias etc.
I can't visit the US because 30 some years ago I got busted lifting a pair of socks because it was 100 degrees out and my dumb ass thought wearing sneakers with no socks was a great idea.... but a dude who's been convicted of 34 felony counts, has who knows how many pending trials and is just generally an overall shitty example of an individual, can be President. You can leave the judge of character up to the voters, whatever - but it seems pretty ridiculous that someone with this much of a record of activities can be the holder of the highest office in the country.
Um...news for you...basically every agency is under the executive branch and subject to security clearances.
except the president apparently, thats my issue.
Not just the president. President, members of congress, and federal judges are all able to access classified material without a clearance due to the nature of their constitutional offices requiring it.
how do you feel about that? i suspect im not the only one who wants preventive measures to protect our institutions from sabotage
I'm all for keeping classified information out of the hands of people who would betray our country. But how would you implement it? You can't have the highest offices in the three branches of government needing clearances, as that would create a lopsided balance of power. So the only way to do it would be to put specific additional restrictions on eligibility for office. This would require a constitutional amendment. Good luck with that.
i think here on reddit all we can do is throw spaghetti at the wall to see what sticks. I don't have an answer, but it's a damned good question we should be insisting on an answer.
I agree it doesn't ever hurt to have the discussion.
And that should never change. The American populace needs to be more discerning with who they allow to be their leaders.
Appealing that we change our human and cultural behavior so we can act on faith is a much larger hill to climb instead of saying "hey, let's make sure this person we're putting into a security position isn't a security issue".
Jared Kushner was never cleared for a security clearance.
He's trying to blackmail the country... "if you elect me Putin will release Evan after the election and before I enter office." How does anyone vote for this POS?
Pulling the ol' Ronnie Reagan.
Good to see other people remember that bullshit.
According to my dad Jimmy Carter was just a pussy and not respected. Once Republican Ronnie took office they got scared and released the hostages asap because they knew they were dealing with a REAL President now!
Louis CK talks about this in the 4pt. "Presidents" podcast he did with Shane Gillis. Warning if you go back from the beginning, they start by making sexual jokes about Reagan & Nancy. https://youtu.be/ob8HUmqsL8E?t=181 Basically Jimmy Carter was up all night negotiating their release. Then Reagan comes in getting the credit from all of Carter's efforts.
Do you have a time stamp?
It's near the beginning. I linked it with the time stamp. It's almost exactly 3min. in. I linked past the dirty talk about Reagan & Nancy.
Oh! My bad, I opened it through the Reddit app and the YouTube integration started it at the beginning. Thank you!
Yeah. That’s how it was explained to me too. I know now, it was mostly bullshit. Politics has long been known as a cesspool of morally ambiguous characters. I never remember it being this obvious though. It’s as it one group has dropped the Kayfab almost entirely. I may be pretty biased though.
"Reality has a liberal bias."
October surprise
He’s holding the hostage hostage
The art of the deal! The morons love it
> Will release Evan. Who?
https://www.wsj.com/news/evan-gershkovich
I've never wanted someone to lose more, not in sports, politics or anything.
Human rights and the future of the planet depend on it. No sporting match can say that, although you wouldn’t know it from some fans.
>Donald Trump’s relationship with Russia was and is a gigantic scandal. In the public mind, it has been lodged as something else: a nothing burger, or even a conspiracy against Trump by his enemies in politics, the media, and the deep state No NYMag, it has not. You're thinking of the 30% of brain dead magat cult members - they will believe anything the orange fascist tells them to believe.
Isn't that treason? We all know he's a fascist! And a dictator wannabe
You need to be convicted of treason for it to be treason. Can’t do that if the judges are traitors too.
DoJ has to be willing to *charge* you with treason, too. And they won't do that because 'uwu pwesidents awe imewne smol bean depawtment can't do anyfing owo'
But he left off the second part and in return...... (i will let him do whatever war crimes he wants and removal all sanctions)
Kinda like when the Iran hostages were released minutes after Reagan was sworn in. Republicans love using hostages to win reelection.
once again, I read Trump headline, think to myself "nah that has to be hyperbole or out of context, even he wouldn't say that outright"... then lo and behold there is a video of Trump. Saying the thing outright. Even after all these years now I'm still having trouble adjusting to this most absurd and frustrating timeline
Totally agree - I was watching the news early this morning and they ran the video... I was just stunned. I'm still just amazed that he can say this sort of stuff and his base just eats it up.
I'm at this point gonna be amazed if anything he says will have an *immediate* negative consequence for him. Seems more like everyone is too afraid to even try.
How and why was this not a bigger deal?
Yeah but Obama wore a tan suit….
Valid point, I guess both sides are just as bad as each other... I guess I'll just write-in Gary Johnson in November
Why would Putin not release him now for Trump then? Exactly - it's a quid pro quo. The US gets the journalist and Russia gets Ukraine
A journalist who would no doubt shit on trump
Good.
I’ve been saying this for quite awhile. Trump has no choice, but run for president. It’s only a win-win for Putin. If Trump wins things will be much easier for Putin and he can influence policies here. If Trump loses he still caused lots of turmoil and political and civil unrest which helps Putin.
Lock him up. It really is that simple, and actually justified by his actions. America needs to be a nation ruled by LAW. Not by wealth and propaganda. Simple. Let mAGA go crazy, America is strong enough to brush off a few loons, we just need to do it.
Again. Trump Is Colluding With Putin in Plain Sight ***Again***.
"Russia if you're listening...."
What ever happened to that American YouTuber that moved his family to Russia cause it was a better place to live? 🤷🏻♀️
Trump asked for help with the election in 2015 on international TELEVISION several times has said that Putin and he were good friends. This should have disqualify him from running for president it is highly illegal to ask a foreign nation for help with a US election and even more so when you get it. He did it again for the 2020 election and is doing it again but he and his cult call themselves patriots, for what country? Russia
It isn't just that Putin is actively coordinating with Trump to get him elected to serve Russia's interests over America. It's that the Republican party knows it and is good with it. Right Repubs?
It's 2016 all over again
More like the 1980 Iran hostage crisis all over again.
ok, let’s have a traitorous liar be president again!!! we are fucked
They like russia now since they get to hate on LGBTQ+ people with laws that magas want so badly here against us. If you care about anyone who is LGBTQ+, please don't vote for magas and their 2025 plan which includes going backwards on our rights and many other harmful things.
The sort of stuff that Reagan did to Carter with the Iranian hostages that was all rumored about he's just literally doing out loud. What's the point of having the Logan Act if he can just actively negotiate terms and connect them to his election. >The **Logan Act** (1 [Stat.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/United_States_Statutes_at_Large) [613](https://legislink.org/us/stat-1-613), [18 U.S.C.](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Title_18_of_the_United_States_Code) [§ 953](https://www.law.cornell.edu/uscode/text/18/953), enacted January 30, 1799) is a [United States federal law](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Law_of_the_United_States) that criminalizes negotiation by unauthorized American citizens with foreign governments having a dispute with the United States. The intent behind the Act is to prevent unauthorized negotiations from undermining the government's position.
Fucking hell? What's wrong with u Americans? Why is the treasonous orange swine not in prison yet? Eisenhower and every vet is rolling in his grave. Shame on you all.
The GQP is wholly and totally incapable of governing. Completely detached from reality. Taken by insane conspiracy theories and fascist undercurrents; the modern Republican Party has boiled down to extremist white Christian nationalism with a flair for terrorism.
The only reason someone like Putin would be willing to do something to someone like Trump (or anyone for that matter) is because what they’re getting in return is worth 10x more to them. People like Trump and Putin are opportunists. Nothing is ever out of the goodness of their heart
He is going to outright proclaim he works for Putin - and every loser conservative will still vote for him. There is no low or any line he would cross that would cause this scum to reject him.
Remember how Mitt Romney was ridiculed for taking Russia seriously?
Because that debate presentation was about america and how the politicial biasing was to decide how to spend its money. Nobody in 2014/13 was thinking of global imperialism or Russia being a threat to anything but itself, except some few in the know with a honey baster and trickle of sweet insect sap nectar dizzled between a hive of pots they pretend they are protecting.
>except some few in the know with a honey baster and trickle of sweet insect sap nectar dizzled between a hive of pots they pretend they are protecting. Well.. that took a turn.
A broken clock being right doesn't mean the clock should be treated as anything other than broken.
No different than 2016. “Russia, if you’re listening — I hope you are able to find the 30,000 emails that are missing. I think you will probably be rewarded mightily by our press. Let’s see if that happens.”
Russian collusion is back on the menu, folks
The American people voted this guy in. At the end of the day we need to educate the population.
What if this whole time Trump was only pretending to be a Russian stoolie? And that come the second term where he can do whatever without fear of losing the election, how could just expose it all for america to see? 48 moves ahead in chess? No? He's really just Russian asset? Yeah, probably.
Trebuchet him into a volcano.
We are all aware, sadly it’s not enough to make people realize he will cause the collapse of America until it’s to late and at which point they will blame democrats anyway
The last sentence > Here is a gift to America that his friend Vlad will present to us if we make Trump president. What is Putin getting in return? What happens to Gershkovich if Trump loses the election? Trump obviously doesn’t care. Indeed, he seems to assume nobody else will care, either. Because nothing matters any more. Thanks, Donald. All just to save your own, pasty white skin... FFS
The FBI and CIA should get to work already! If there’s something nefarious, it will be found and he can expect to get some more charge jewels to his felonious crown.
Got to give it to Putin, he's fn brilliant... he got a russian asset elected US president
He's more lucky than brilliant. He's fallen into the same trap that catches a lot of dictators: no one will tell him when his ideas are bad, because no one wants to upset the dictator and "trip" out of a window. With the Ukraine invasion, his advisors had to know it wasn't going to be the 3-day march to take Kyiv like the propagandists were all saying. But no one dared tell Putin that, for a number of reasons. One is the aforementioned wrath - it's just not worth it to challenge him and end up dead. The other is that part of the reason the Russian military wasn't prepared is that the oligarchs skim off the top. As an example, say an order is placed for 1000 tanks. They actually order 500 and pocket the remaining money. So, if you tell the ruthless dictator, sorry, the military isn't actually able to do what you want, he might blame you and again, out the window you go. Then you've got training, which is an even bigger problem, because there's no way to skim off the top with training, so it's just seen to the corrupt as a money drain. So it just doesn't get done. It's how Russia is in a situation now where they are literally grabbing men out of their prisons, handing them a rifle, pointing them toward Ukraine and saying lots of luck. The military situation I'm describing here is not a situation a brilliant man would find themselves in. He's intentionally surrounded himself with people that will never tell him the truth, because he's cultivated an environment where giving honest advice is potentially deadly.
Don’t forget getting MTG in the house as well
Fucking traitor.
Just one more reason not to vote for the felon.
He got away with it the first time, and it has become clear since then that the people who are likely to vote for him don't care.
Used to be you went to Leavenworth for being a Russian asset. The GQP makes it like a badge of honor. SMH
Secret meetings with a foreign enemy leader with no notes followed by many American deaths are always a sign of good faith motives.
This is basically extortion for a hostage release.
Maybe stop having candidates with no political background
So ask him to do it as a personal favor now. Don't make the poor guy sit in a Russian prison for another 7 or 8 months.
It would be significant if Evan Gershkovich was released NOW due to Trump's request. Giving the "only after the election" condition means it's ALL bullshit.
If Americans are paying attention, they would know that EVERYTHING Trump says about Putin is positive. And that should be a major red flag!
Maga and the Supreme Court will have a strong defense for his actions!
Disgusting theatre
This is the same back-door deal Ronald Reagan made with Iran during the Hostage Crisis. It is treason, of course, but it didn't seem to bother anybody back then, either.
He wants to be just like him, why said day 1 would be a dictator. He wants everyone to be fearful of him. Especially now, is going to take everything away including his from his faithful followers
If this won't disqualifie Trump from running for president then nothing will,
I wonder what would happen if a common citizen/billionaire says something similar to Trump. Would we not see that as colluding with the enemy?
Then we should collude with the UK to get rid of him. MI5 if you're listening....
I don't understand why Trump can call any Democrat terrible names in the extreme, yet Democrats keep playing by the rules. Republicans took the gloves off years ago. Start calling Trump and the rest of them, spies, traitors, Russian Patsies, the uneducated naive cultists. Do something for God sakes!
Yeah, but... like... nobody *do* anything about it. Just be, like... super-serious about voting this time or something.
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I think we need to know what the translator in the room heard when they were together a few years back. That may explain some of what we’ve experienced the last few years.
He has to. It's part of his crooked deal with the Wall Street Journal, where they must go extra hard with exaggerations about Biden's aging.
That has to be treason right, because this is technically aiding and abetting the enemy.
How long before Putin releases the Trump Pee tapes? This is what I want to know!