mtutiger

Regarding Point 2, Elon Musk's popularity is somewhere on level of George W Bush in 2007-2008. His intervention in Wisconsin in their Supreme Court election turned out to be a dumpster fire for the more conservative candidate. Khanna is entitled to his opinion, but just on the politics alone, it seems pretty clear that his interests (as you suggest, influenced by his own experiences in his district) probably don't align with a greater strategy of winning the kinds of districts that will be decisive in the next Midterm

I get your point, but historically, in-power Presidents struggle in Midterm cycles. That's basically a precedent at this point. In order to break that, it's important to acknowledge that reality and not just pretend it doesn't exist.

I'm not a lawyer, but their public comments about him leading up to this point are going to be a real issue for prosecuting him IMO

I was reliably told by various members of Trump's administration (including Trump himself, Vance, his Press Secretary, etc) that it was he was never leaving El Salvador. Interesting

There is this as well.... there is a real difference to how the GOP performs with Trump on the ballot versus off the ballot.

With an election that was decided by 200k voters over three states and the environment heading in (with voters pissed off after inflation in 2022 and 2023), the election swung a lot more on voters wanting to fire the last administration for said economic environment over any specific policy proposals than it did Kamala Harris pushing a policy proposal for first time homebuyers. Not a value judgment on the policy, but had she had the same policy proposals with an electorate that wasn't polarized against the administration she served in, I think she would have won.

Bumping this... Ultimately, all of this should fall on Donald Trump for letting him into government. Full stop

The fact that Holic only seems to emerge to talk about the last President (as opposed to the current one)... is telling

@Tigeraholic1 Always Chickens Out

I'm sure we'll read more about his whiplash mental state in Jake Tapper's new book, set to be released in May 2029

To be clear, Chris' daddy took about 10 seasons to see the light himself.... so maybe they have more in common than most Tiger fans would admit.

I'm still speechless from this one.... just an incredibly stupid thing to say. And while it's Iowa, it's a more competitive state when Trump's name ain't on the ballot.

One of your responses to me was that pardons were out of control "on both sides". Which implies an equivalence. So yeah, you're getting a "but Trump" because, by your own admission later on in the thread, there really isn't an equivalence (ie. a "both sides") to discuss here.

I question how much Musk is stepping back, but to the extent that he's being forced out and that he's being pushed in front of the bus in the press, nobody should forget who brought him on to the do the damage that he did. I'm going to go ahead and quote Harry Truman's desk: "The buck stops here!" Which means the ultimate responsibility for allowing an unelected mentally deranged drug addict to run roughshod over government lies with Donald Trump. Musk deserves rage, of course, but let's not lose sight of this fact either.

There were some bad ones... I even said it at the time. Although the moment that Donald Trump pardoned all the J6 rioters pretty much is a conversation ender in terms of "both sides" for me.... the scale and proportion isn't even in the same time zone anymore. Either way, my point is that I'm not going to take lectures from the same people who were all jawboning about "moral relativism" during the Clinton years. All that stuff was clearly bull****.

I argued against it at the time and still am against it, but from watching the first 100+ days of this administration, it's less of a slam dunk for me for the reason given the bolded. I agree completely.

Some family members have hit me with the "both sides" **** about Bill Clinton, and my response has simply that a) I was 9 years old when the impeachment happened and b) you guys were all talking about "moral relativism" and whatnot back then and, lo and behold, you're the moral relativists now! lol I have very little patience for that crap

And my point is that because of his lust towards these types of leaders and inability to discern what their actual motives are, he gives them free license to take advantage of us (and him) over and over again. Hence the comparison to Harry Ellis.... he's a moron, there is no strategy here. He's just an idiot that thinks he can talk a guy out of Putin, who actually has an ethos, out of deeply held convictions.

That's a "defeated Medicare" level ****up. I'm sure Jake Tapper and Alex Thompson are on it lol

I think we need to be honest and admit that Trump's worldview, one where everything is transactional and all about personal gain (ie. how he operates), isn't how every other world leader operates. And that Donald Trump isn't nearly self-aware enough to understand that himself. He was never going to end this war on day one because he doesn't understand either side of the conflict. He's Harry Ellis trying to talk Hans Gruber out of the whole Nakatomi Plaza affair. And we're all along for the ride.

Dave Mlicki had a Maddux... Dang