Posts Made By: James Brown

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

No, sadly you have it backwards.  Here's one that you've been dodging for years.

I've asked it numerous times.

Name the conservative policies that Trump pushed forward and the agenda that he got through the Congress that you disagreed with.

I think its about 2 years now... Hmm.... maybe longer that you've dodged that one?  

You can try to list them since you never have.  

The problem Rich, is that I agreed with many policies that passed in the Trump years.  We have had many many many threads on various policies and I have participated in them.  So, if you were inclined to pay attention you would know which policies I favored at the time.

You always ask that question in the context of a "gottcha..." Specifically, since I like many conservative policies, you presume that I only voted for Biden because of "Trump's mean tweets" ....Gottcha!  

In this context, your question has become so tedious that I just ignore your false dichotomy.  

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

 
It's the user, not the usage, and it amuses me. This dates back as far as my memory goes when some in the GOP called them the Democrat party, as if it would tweak Dems by mispronouncing their party affiliation. It did irk some in the DNC back in the day, but that's ancient history, and mostly inside-baseball IMO.

Skip ahead to today and I would bet that most that use this "pejorative" are not even aware they are even misusing the term, let alone why it allegedly tweeks Dems. It just sounds stupid to me, especially coming out of a genius like Jr.

PS I'm guessing the similarity between Democrat and Bureaucrat was the intended zinger at the time, but don't quote me on that

I thought it was some sort of dig at the Democrat's allegedly being opposed to "democratic" processes, like voting.  (In the context of decades ago).

p.s.  Here is a long history of this soft slur.  Way older than Rush Limbaugh.  Richard's p.c. might explode if he clicks through to the New Yorker though....


https://www.newyorker.com/magazine/2006/08/07/the-ic-factor

Originally Posted by Darian Rachal

James, FWIW, I was listening to Mark Levin earlier and he used the term repeatedly. It's simply a pejorative term for the Democratic Party.

Hi Darian:

Understood.  I am not bent out of shape about it, like I would be if someone were to call a developmentally disabled kid a "retard."  I do think it is weak and ineffective as far as pejoratives go.  Someone here used to call republicans "repugs"  Same deal.  It is a weak and ineffective pejorative that reflects poorly on the person using it.  All in my own opinion only.  Jim

Originally Posted by Richard Davis

And just for the record Russ, I don't have any problem with referring to people who have learning issues as retarded because for 100 years, that's wasn't a pejorative.  

But today?

I'm calling BS on this.  You may be crass and churlish Richard, but there is no way I believe you would call an actual learning-impaired child a retard.  Either to his or her face, or when in a serious conversation about the child, or within ear shot of the child's mother. 

Even you recognize that this word, like so many others from our youth, has evolved out of polite discourse.  Jim 

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

Finally someone took the bait on this term, albeit a friend and decent guy. 

I have been lectured before about using this term by a friend (and decent person) who objected to my usage of the term retard. NOBODY today would call a mentally disabled person a "retard" for the very reason that it is used as a pejorative, and only a pejorative, The term has been 100% appropriated by modern culture as meaning a hopelessly clueless person. I see no reason to stop using it since it has been purged as a medical term long ago. How does this demean someone with a disability then. How am I wrong here?

BTW, if we shame-ban the word retard at this point, teenage boys will just use the current term for a mentally disabled person as a new pejorative and it will stick. I'm guessing they already do. Let's just stick with retard since it is never used as a medical term anymore and in the common vernacular. 

I'm sorry, but especially today, we need a stinging label for an idiot and this has been used by my generation forever. Give me a good reason to stop using it and I will.

I think you missed my post #19 in this thread.  I am OK with using retard in the manner you are using it.  I am never OK with using retard to describe a mentally disabled person, nowadays.

Originally Posted by Russ Carroll

I paid more because Trump attack Democrat Party states and I live at ground zero, California. I paid 13.8% to CA and was DOUBLE TAXED at the federal level when the SALT deduction was eliminated. Econ's always said this was unconstitutional, but they all ran for the hills when the issue finally arose under Trump.

Well, speaking of morons. 

(I recall we've had the move from CA discussion before... just teasing.)

Originally Posted by James Lacey

At the very least, it seems inevitable that the DOJ will charge Trump and his lawyers with obstruction. Trump's lies that he cooperated are a joke. He delayed access to the documents and lied about having turned them all over repeatedly. And they are not his records; he cannot merely declassify them with a wave of his hands. He has zero legal entitlement to challenge anything. Early reporting is he's not going to get his special master either. His legal team is the worst.

Hi James,

I agree with you and Jim M. regarding Trump and his standing as a human being or potential candidate.  However, I also agree with Greg.  The "cry wolf" analogy is pretty apt.  I know that I have said this before, but I think it is important.  The government in this instance better have the goods on Trump and they better prosecute him for something serious, and they better win.  Otherwise I expect to see Trump win again in 2024.

Forget your views and analytical take for a moment.  You too Jim M.  You guys are smarter and more engaged than the average voter.  Imagine you are not so well informed.  Imagine you a center-right or center-left working man who has bills to pay, crying children at home, and little time to read the NYT.  

If that were you, and if this investigation fizzles, it will be super easy for Trump's team to spin the whole Mar-a-Lago affair as a historically unprecedented attempt by a sitting president (budding despot Uncle Joe) to employ the vast machinery of the US Government to take down his likely opponent and to deflect attention from his corrupt family.  Something like 40% of the electorate believes this now.  If inflation and/or recession are still a topic in '24, and if the current investigation does not put Trump in jail, or at least force him into an embarrassing plea deal, then I guarantee Trump will be president in '24.

All the Democrat's eggs are in one basket.  They better not mess it up.  Jim

Originally Posted by James Brown

Hi James,

I agree with you and Jim M. regarding Trump and his standing as a human being or potential candidate.  However, I also agree with Greg.  The "cry wolf" analogy is pretty apt.  I know that I have said this before, but I think it is important.  The government in this instance better have the goods on Trump and they better prosecute him for something serious, and they better win.  Otherwise I expect to see Trump win again in 2024.

Forget your views and analytical take for a moment.  You too Jim M.  You guys are smarter and more engaged than the average voter.  Imagine you are not so well informed.  Imagine you a center-right or center-left working man who has bills to pay, crying children at home, and little time to read the NYT.  

If that were you, and if this investigation fizzles, it will be super easy for Trump's team to spin the whole Mar-a-Lago affair as a historically unprecedented attempt by a sitting president (budding despot Uncle Joe) to employ the vast machinery of the US Government to take down his likely opponent and to deflect attention from his corrupt family.  Something like 40% of the electorate believes this now.  If inflation and/or recession are still a topic in '24, and if the current investigation does not put Trump in jail, or at least force him into an embarrassing plea deal, then I guarantee Trump will be president in '24.

All the Democrat's eggs are in one basket.  They better not mess it up.  Jim

p.s. Hillary's emails are relevant.  If the government successfully prosecutes Trump, it better be for something more vile than merely having classified information at home.  That sort of prosecution will backfire in my opinion because, as Rich likes to point out, other high level officials, like Hillary, got away with the same crime. 

Forget any nuanced differences.  Remember that at least 40% would vote for Satan over Trump and 40% would vote for Trump over Abraham Lincoln.  Nuanced differences will be lost on the 20% who might consider voting R in '24, especially if inflation and recession are still fresh on the voter's minds.

Originally Posted by James Lacey

I disagree for several reasons. First, the Trump MAGA base will vote for him no matter what, and that does not include moderate Republicans, and it certainly doesn't include independents. The Trump MAGA base is not 40% of the electorate. At this point, I would not be surprised at all if it's well below 30%. On top of that, anti-Trump groups are spending big to shrink Trump's support, and big GOP donors have already abandoned him. I'm calling it now; Trump is done. Second, the Democrats do not have their eggs all in one basket. Biden and the Democrats have been conducting a master class on how to govern even when you don't have a majority in the Senate. I don't think the legislative, foreign, and domestic policy wins for Democrats over the last couple of years are going completely unnoticed. Lastly, conservatives shot themselves in the foot with the overturning of Roe v. Wade. Women are registering to vote in droves, and they are going to vote pro-choice. There are many more dynamics out there than just Trump's lies about the FBI and the DOJ.

Hi James:

All valid points of course.  I certainly hope you are right and Trump's political career is done, even if the DOJ fails to nail him. 

That said, I am not convinced that overturning Roe is going to matter in the states that matter.  Will overturning Roe flip Ohio or Florida?  I think we'll know more this November.  

"Biden and the Democrats have been conducting a master class on how to govern even when you don't have a majority in the Senate. I don't think the legislative, foreign, and domestic policy wins for Democrats over the last couple of years are going completely unnoticed."  These sort of things are being noticed by NYT readers and other wealthy elites.  I suspect that far more voters are noticing the price of gas and groceries.   If inflation and recession are still big topics, I personally think that these issues will (and always have) overshadow any policy or legislative victories the Ds or Biden might claim.   

Jim

Originally Posted by James Lacey

p.s. When you say things too, like, "The Democrats are putting all their eggs in one basket," it almost implies the DOJ investigation and the attempts by the NARA to retrieve the records are part of some Democratic plot. Are not they merely part of a criminal investigation on the part of the DOJ and a statutory obligation by the NARA? Who is responsible for the current Mar-a-Lago scandal? It's no one else besides Trump.

I agree with the bolded part 110%. 

I am not implying that this is a plot.  I am implying that this might turn out to be the mother of all political missteps.

Seriously, I have no doubt whatsoever that Trump committed crimes.  Were they crimes worth investigating or prosecuting in this political climate?  That is what worries me.  Any prosecution and investigation is carried out at the discretion of the investigators and prosecutors.  This is an investigation and presumably a future prosecution I personally would not have brought, unless I were absolutely sure that I could nail Trump to the wall big time. 

This is blatant political calculus on my part.  Bringing a criminal to justice has nothing to do with it.  I feel in my bones that if Trump skates or merely has his wrist slapped for illegally possessing classified documents, it will embolden him, it will energize his base and there will be no way for the centrist R wing to stop his march to the 2024 nomination.  I also lack any confidence that Biden can beat him again if inflation and recession are still on the voter's minds.