//Originally Posted by Occam's Banana
Republicans are not coming to save us.
"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul
Proponent of real science.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.
Ratios in tweet = FAVORABLE / UNFAVORABLE
https://twitter.com/ggreenwald/statu...64728217735221
PDF file: https://static.foxnews.com/foxnews.c...lease75105.pdf
Last edited by Occam's Banana; 08-18-2023 at 04:08 AM.
I guess Ramaswamy is now the only reason to even bother watching the debate.
Trump Doesn’t Deserve A Second Term For How He Mismanaged Covid
BY: GEORGI BOORMAN - AUGUST 18, 2023
If we truly want to safeguard our freedoms and our republic, it’s critical we remember what really happened in 2020.
Donald J. Trump currently faces unfair indictments that threaten the future of this republic by establishing judicial persecution as a way to keep political opponents out of office. If Trump becomes our nominee, millions of Americans will vote for him no matter what happens in court. They might see voting for him as necessary to send the message that this kind of persecution cannot be tolerated, but the record speaks for itself: Trump in no way deserves a second term.
Most of us are trying to move on from the Covid era and allow those traumatic memories to slip into the blurry past, but if we truly want to safeguard our freedoms and our republic, it’s critical we remember what really happened in 2020. President Trump played a key role in allowing us to be stripped of our freedoms and, through championing Operation Warp Speed, to be later subjected to draconian vaccine mandates during the Biden administration.
On March 16, 2020, Trump gave a press conference with Anthony Fauci and White House Covid Coordinator Deborah Birx that precipitated a cascade of supposedly state-led lockdowns. “My administration is recommending that all Americans, including the young and healthy, work to engage in schooling from home when possible, avoid gathering in groups of more than 10 people,” Trump said.
Then Anthony Fauci read the fine print on the two-page flyer of Centers for Disease Control and Prevention (CDC) guidance handed out at the conference and available online to every American. That fine print, which Trump may or may not have read (either way, it was his responsibility), prompted almost all states to lock down: closing businesses, churches, schools, denying social contact for seniors in long-term living, canceling weddings and funerals, and giving critical cover to inhumane hospital policies that forced people to die alone.
This set of “recommendations” was the perfect system of political CYA — one which Trump should have seen coming: The states could blame the CDC for demanding lockdowns, and the CDC could deny they ever “mandated” any lockdowns and claim it was purely the states’ decision. Showing the potency of the CDC’s lockdown guidelines, Fauci, as the Trump administration’s key media spokesman on Covid at the time, admitted that a “national stay-at-home order” is “essentially what it is.”
Fauci, Birx, and the CDC supported months more restrictions on basic liberties, long after Trump had changed his mind and demanded that America reopen. In June of 2020, he was bragging about what a great job he’d done on Covid while nursing home residents were still suffering in isolation, a third of small businesses across the nation had already been shuttered, and children as young as 2 were being forced to wear masks in the summer heat — masks Trump’s CDC demanded Americans wear. He also flip-flopped on reopening schools the following month, saying some may need to delay reopening, despite Covid not posing a substantial threat to children.
Trump himself made extended lockdowns possible by signing the CARES Act, which doled out $300 billion in paychecks for sitting at home and paid far more to businesses not to operate but keep employees on the books. Without CARES funds, the state could not afford to keep the country locked down. They would have had no choice but to begrudge people their basic rights to work, consume, and travel. Now, the profligate spending of the federal government during Trump and Biden’s terms has contributed to the inflation-straining family budgets today.
CARES also granted $400 million to encourage a Covid-conscious 2020 election via mail-in voting, leading to a number of problems with election security and integrity. His administration also shut down the cruise industry and severely curtailed international tourism after Covid was already known to be widespread within the states.
To his credit, Trump did change his mind. On May 18, he tweeted “REOPEN OUR COUNTRY.” (It appears it was then deleted.) He would later stand on a White House balcony and remove his facemask after returning from treatment for Covid. But it was too little too late, and this machine of panic and oppression he set in motion could no longer be controlled.
What’s more, once the first Covid shots became available, Trump, who had already been infected and recovered, chose to take them. His contribution to the serious misinformation campaign against the protection of natural immunity can’t be understated. Millions of people who had already had Covid followed his lead and got the jab, which proved to be the least safe, least effective modern vaccine ever to be mass-injected.
Of the three vaccines Trump’s government authorized, one, the Janssen shot, was quickly discouraged from use due to risk of dangerous blood clotting. The other two, from Moderna and Pfizer/BioNTech, began showing evidence of causing myocarditis just months after launch — and this was only one kind of adverse event that the government would admit was causally related to the vaccines. Many more adverse effects are hotly disputed today, but the government’s surveillance system, VAERS, has taken in a record-shattering number of adverse-event reports for Covid shots compared to other vaccines. Though VAERS reports are unverified, the largest percentages of reports are typically submitted by health care professionals (38 percent) and vaccine manufacturers (30 percent). The system exists to generate “safety signal detection.”
Excess mortality in 2021, the year of mass vaccination with the products Trump championed, was even greater than in 2020. If the jabs, which nearly everyone deemed “vulnerable” took early that year, “saved millions of lives,” as Trump has claimed, how can this staggering rise in mortality be explained? Overdose deaths increased by 31 percent, a tragedy inseparable from lockdown fallout, yet only accountable for a small portion of the approximately 443,000 deaths over the expected number. Even deaths coded as “Covid” were at or above 2020 levels through most of 2021. Trump was simply wrong, and the fallout from the Covid shots he was so proud for the government to produce hand-in-glove with corporations with spotty track records and non-existent ones (Spikevax was Moderna’s first commercially available product) is still being felt.
The injections’ speedy FDA authorization, which happened on Trump’s watch, and the promotion by members of his administration as “safe and effective” later paved the way for strict mandates by employers, including city and state governments and the U.S. military. The Biden administration’s attempt to force as many Americans as possible to take the experimental products wouldn’t have been possible had Trump not greenlighted Operation Warp Speed.
Trump’s biggest indictment is that what control he did have, even after dissenting from Fauci and Birx, he refused to exercise. Defenders say moves like firing Fauci, Birx, and extreme mask-promoter Redfield wouldn’t have meant much because the mass hysteria had already set in. But it would have meant everything to people hurt by Covid policies; it would have shown prudence, conviction, and a willingness to learn from his errors. He deserves to be commended for hiring Dr. Scott Atlas, who promoted reopening schools. But he also kept key Covid panic-pushers on board until he left office, and indeed said he didn’t get enough credit for Fauci’s work on Covid.
For those of us who are willing to remember Trump’s actions during 2020, pleas that Trump “wanted to reopen the country” ring hollow. We went through the Covid nightmare because Trump led us into it, empowering tyrants at all levels of government to strip us of our liberties. He has not apologized, and said “we did the right thing.” He took an oath to protect and defend the Constitution of the United States, and he broke it. Any Democrat put in the White House is sure to oppress the people to an even greater extent, but primary voters must take Trump’s pivotal mistakes during Covid into account, no matter their feelings on the indictments or the 2020 election. Trump can’t be trusted with a second term.
...
More: https://thefederalist.com/2023/08/18...managed-covid/
"Foreign aid is taking money from the poor people of a rich country, and giving it to the rich people of a poor country." - Ron Paul
"Beware the Military-Industrial-Financial-Pharma-Corporate-Internet-Media-Government Complex." - B4L update of General Dwight D. Eisenhower
"Debt is the drug, Wall St. Banksters are the dealers, and politicians are the addicts." - B4L
"Totally free immigration? I've never taken that position. I believe in national sovereignty." - Ron Paul
Proponent of real science.
The views and opinions expressed here are solely my own, and do not represent this forum or any other entities or persons.
Gotta protect our democracy y'know
- Kim KardashianIt's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!
My pronouns are he/him/his
As if Trump or any other Republican was going to win California anyway.
Last edited by Anti Globalist; 08-20-2023 at 09:09 PM.
"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."
Calvin Coolidge
Trump doesn't deserve a second term for the simple fact that he's a Democratic operative send to destroy the GOP and make them unelectable until the end of time.
"Perhaps one of the most important accomplishments of my administration is minding my own business."
Calvin Coolidge
Exactly. The right had their chance.
"And now that the legislators and do-gooders have so futilely inflicted so many systems upon society, may they finally end where they should have begun: May they reject all systems, and try liberty; for liberty is an acknowledgment of faith in God and His works." - Bastiat
"It is difficult to free fools from the chains they revere." - Voltaire
BuT...MUh DeMoCraCy!!!
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984
So, the other choices we have are neocons and a fake American China hawk. Wonderful.
I hate to admit, but he does have a point.
The fatal flaw in this guy's article is that somehow we, as free people, are electing, or selecting "leaders".
The average politician or schmuck on the street, couldn't "lead" their way to a brothel, with an eight ball of coke and a fistful of hundreds.
"Leaders"...give me a $#@!ing break...these people are sent to capitals to represent me, to vote for against public policy as I would.
Nothing more.
Elections Are Bad for Democracy
https://dnyuz.com/2023/08/21/electio...for-democracy/
August 21, 2023in News
On the eve of the first debate of the 2024 presidential race, trust in government is rivaling historic lows. Officials have been working hard to safeguard elections and assure citizens of their integrity. But if we want public office to have integrity, we might be better off eliminating elections altogether.
If you think that sounds anti-democratic, think again. The ancient Greeks invented democracy, and in Athens many government officials were selected through sortition — a random lottery from a pool of candidates. In the United States, we already use a version of a lottery to select jurors. What if we did the same with mayors, governors, legislators, justices and even presidents?
People expect leaders chosen at random to be less effective than those picked systematically. But in multiple experiments led by the psychologist Alexander Haslam, the opposite held true. Groups actually made smarter decisions when leaders were chosen at random than when they were elected by a group or chosen based on leadership skill.
Why were randomly chosen leaders more effective? They led more democratically. “Systematically selected leaders can undermine group goals,” Dr. Haslam and his colleagues suggest, because they have a tendency to “assert their personal superiority.” When you’re anointed by the group, it can quickly go to your head: I’m the chosen one.
When you know you’re picked at random, you don’t experience enough power to be corrupted by it. Instead, you feel a heightened sense of responsibility: I did nothing to earn this, so I need to make sure I represent the group well. And in one of the Haslam experiments, when a leader was picked at random, members were more likely to stand by the group’s decisions.
Over the past year I’ve floated the idea of sortition with a number of current members of Congress. Their immediate concern is ability: How do we make sure that citizens chosen randomly are capable of governing?
In ancient Athens, people had a choice about whether to participate in the lottery. They also had to pass an examination of their capacity to exercise public rights and duties. In America, imagine that anyone who wants to enter the pool has to pass a civics test — the same standard as immigrants applying for citizenship. We might wind up with leaders who understand the Constitution.
A lottery would also improve our odds of avoiding the worst candidates in the first place. When it comes to character, our elected officials aren’t exactly crushing it. To paraphrase William F. Buckley Jr., I’d rather be governed by the first 535 people in the phone book. That’s because the people most drawn to power are usually the least fit to wield it.
The most dangerous traits in a leader are what psychologists call the dark triad of personality traits: narcissism, Machiavellianism and psychopathy. What these traits share is a willingness to exploit others for personal gain. People with dark triad traits tend to be more politically ambitious — they’re attracted to authority for its own sake. But we often fall under their spell. Is that you, George Santos?
In a study of elections worldwide, candidates who were rated by experts as having high psychopathy scores actually did better at the ballot box. In the United States, presidents assessed as having psychopathic and narcissistic tendencies were more persuasive with the public than their peers. A common explanation is that they’re masters of fearless dominance and superficial charm, and we mistake their confidence for competence. Sadly, it starts early: Even kids who display narcissistic personality traits get more leadership nominations and claim to be better leaders. (They aren’t.)
If the dark triad wins an election, we all lose. When psychologists rated the first 42 American presidents, the narcissists were more likely to take reckless risks, make unethical decisions and get impeached. Add a dash of Machiavellianism and a pinch of psychopathy, and you get autocrats like Putin, Erdoğan, Orbán and Duterte.
Eliminate voting, and candidates with dark triad traits would be less likely than they are now to rise to the top. Of course, there’s also a risk that a lottery would deprive us of the chance to select a leader with distinctive skills. At this point, that’s a risk I’m willing to take. As lucky as America was to have Lincoln at the helm, it’s more important to limit our exposure to bad character than to roll the dice on the hopes of finding the best.
Besides, if Lincoln were alive now, it’s hard to imagine that he’d even put his top hat in the ring. In a world filled with divisiveness and derision, evidence shows that members of Congress are increasingly rewarded for incivility. And they know it.
A lottery would give a fair shot to people who aren’t tall enough or male enough to win. It would also open the door to people who aren’t connected or wealthy enough to run. Our broken campaign finance system lets the rich and powerful buy their way into races while preventing people without money or influence from getting on the ballot. They’re probably better candidates: Research suggests that on average, people who grow up in low-income families tend to be more effective leaders and less likely to cheat — they’re less prone to narcissism and entitlement.
Switching to sortition would save a lot of money too. The 2020 elections alone cost upward of $14 billion. And if there’s no campaign, there are no special interests offering to help pay for it.
Finally, no voting also means no boundaries to gerrymander and no Electoral College to dispute. Instead of questioning whether millions of ballots were counted accurately, we could watch the lottery live, like we do with teams getting their lottery picks in the NBA draft.
Other countries have begun to see the promise of sortition. Two decades ago, Canadian provinces and the Dutch government started using sortition to create citizens’ assemblies that generated ideas for improving democracy. In the past few years, the French, British and German governments have run lotteries to select citizens to work on climate change policies. Ireland tried a hybrid model, gathering 33 politicians and 66 randomly chosen citizens for its 2012 constitutional convention. In Bolivia, the nonprofit Democracy in Practice works with schools to replace student council elections with lotteries. Instead of elevating the usual suspects, it welcomes a wider range of students to lead and solve real problems in their schools and their communities.
As we prepare for America to turn 250 years old, it may be time to rethink and renew our approach to choosing officials. The lifeblood of a democracy is the active participation of the people. There is nothing more democratic than offering each and every citizen an equal opportunity to lead.
Last edited by Anti Federalist; 08-22-2023 at 11:44 AM.
“The Party told you to reject the evidence of your eyes and ears. It was their final, most essential command.”
― George Orwell, 1984
Actually, that is not true. What you are doing is delegating authority to large groups of people who have varieties of self interests. Nothing more.
I hate to admit, but he does have a point.
The fatal flaw in this guy's article is that somehow we, as free people, are electing, or selecting "leaders".
The average politician or schmuck on the street, couldn't "lead" their way to a brothel, with an eight ball of coke and a fistful of hundreds.
"Leaders"...give me a $#@!ing break...these people are sent to capitals to represent me, to vote for against public policy as I would.
Nothing more.
Let’s use your Republican Party for an example. While you may be against endless wars and the Military Industrial Complex, and starting wars for the sake of profit, using your hard-earned tax payer money to do such atrocities, there are many in the Republican Party who work in that industry. Those constituents may be 100% pro gun, oppose abortion, and firm supporters of property rights. A Representative may have MIC manufacturing plants in his district, and for him to cut, or even level out funding, would mean zero votes from those Republican constituents.
That’s just one small example of thousands.
When you vote, you are willingly giving your consent to democratic rule by mob, and forfeit your right (all of your rights) as an individual.
Last edited by PAF; 08-22-2023 at 12:37 PM.
____________
An Agorist Primer ~ Samuel Edward Konkin III (free PDF download)
The End of All Evil ~ Jeremy Locke (free PDF download)
To give an update on my campaign, all is going well and polls I have conducted indicate I have a very strong chance of winning 2024.
Write in #TheTexan #2024 #VoteHard
- Kim KardashianIt's all about taking action and not being lazy. So you do the work, whether it's fitness or whatever. It's about getting up, motivating yourself and just doing it.
Donald Trump / Crenshaw 2024!!!!
My pronouns are he/him/his
https://twitter.com/CollinRugg/statu...77001342275940
NEW: Far-left MSNBC host Rachel Maddow promotes new conspiracy theory that Donald Trump will most likely remain president until he dies like a king would if he gets elected again in 2024.
Cognitive tests should be required for show hosts.
“The election means one of two things…Either he loses the election and he goes to prison or he wins the election, he doesn't go to prison. And uh, is that for life that he gets to be president?… do you think he allows us to have new elections?”
“If Trump and his supporters see the stakes as losing and going to prison or winning and being president and probably president for life, how should we expect that he and the Republican party and Republican officials in swing states are going to handle the conduct of that election that Trump may very well lose?”
How does this woman still have a job?
Bernie Denounces Cornel for Spoiling Biden's Chances—Completing Transformation Into Establishment Hack, w/ Sabby. Plus: Overcoming Destructive Ideological Stereotypes | SYSTEM UPDATE #140
https://rumble.com/v3df106-bernie-de...s-chances.html
Glenn Greenwald (30 August 2023)
CLIP:
BERNIE ATTACKS CORNEL, Fully Transforming Into Establishment Hack, w/ Sabrina Salvati
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=mPVGViH-DG4
Glenn Greenwald (31 August 2023)
Updated OP:
- added Ryan Binkley & Perry Johnson to Republican candidates (per Ballotpedia)
- struck Francis Suarez from Republican candidates (suspended campaign)
- added Lars Mapstead to Libertarian candidates (per the tweet quoted below)
Also added Oliver, Rectenwald, Smith & ter Maat as LP candidates per Wikipedia.
"'Our democracy' is always code for 'our hegemony'." -- Michael Malice
https://twitter.com/robreiner/status...85819330523212
//
Michael Rectenwald For President | Part Of The Problem 1037
https://rumble.com/v3ieu9h-michael-r...blem-1037.html
{Part of the Problem | 16 September 2023}
Libertarian Presidential candidate Michael Rectenwald joins Dave Smith on this Episode of Part Of The Problem! Michael and Dave discuss the major pillars of Michael's campaign including ESG investing, The Great Reset Agenda, private property rights, and resisting the globalist agenda.
You Can Support The Rectenwald Campaign Here: https://rectenwald2024.com/
Last edited by Occam's Banana; 09-17-2023 at 01:22 PM.
Exactly. Trump's decisions during the 2020 COVID nonsense, alone, have proven that he's not fit to be President again. He was tested, and he failed.
"Then David said to the Philistine, 'You come to me with a sword, a spear, and a javelin, but I come to you in the name of Yahweh of hosts, the God of the battle lines of Israel, Whom you have reproached.'" - 1 Samuel 17:45
"May future generations look back on our work and say that these were men and women who, in moment of great crisis, stood up to their politicians, the opinion-makers, and the Establishment, and saved their country." - Dr. Ron Paul
The Failures Of Donald Trump | Part Of The Problem 1039
https://rumble.com/v3jqs0f-the-failu...blem-1039.html
{Part of the Problem | 21 September 2023}
On this episode of Part Of The Problem, Dave and Robbie Discuss the many failures of Donald Trump in his crusade against the deep state.
Just look at that poll and see Biden at 46%.
It's totally rigged. Don't even pay attention. Nothing to see.
Everyone has to do what's best for their family.
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