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Yes, We Are a Laughing Stock
By Donna
November 2, 2021 10:36 am
Category: Opinion

(2.5 from 2 votes)
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This saddens me to no end. Back in the day, I was brought up to believe that America was second to none. We were. But now, among free nations, we're dead last.

***

As the week drew to a close and President Biden desperately tried to get Congress to vote on his infrastructure bills (build roads, help people) before he headed to two major summits in Europe, pundits and corporatist Dems railed against the progressive lawmakers for holding things up. Of course the only people holding things up were two pro-wealthy Democratic senators — and every single Republican. The progressives? They were holding out on behalf of the vast majority of Americans whose lives would be turned around and vastly improved should Biden’s big bill pass.

Biden was beside himself to get something enacted before going to the G-20 summit and the COP-26 climate meeting. So he started tossing major pieces of his beloved bill overboard. He threw out paid family leave, got rid of free community college, took dental and eyeglasses away from the elderly and made a thousand other little cuts. He also decided the wealthy would not have to pay their true fair share of the taxes.

So Biden left for Europe without anything becoming law. In the weeks leading up to his trip, he (I mean the Republicans and the two lame Dems) also failed to raise the minimum wage and they failed to protect voting rights. The pundits howled. “Biden goes to Europe as a weakened president!” “Biden humiliated in front of the world!” “The US cannot govern itself and Biden enters these summits with America as the laughing stock amongst world leaders.”

Seriously?

Are the press and politicians that clueless as to why the world is laughing at us? I hate to tell you, it ain’t because of the roads and child tax credits. We are the laughing stock because we refuse to take care of our own people — and NO ONE around the world can understand why we force our old people to suffer and why we put our own children last.

Not other country’s children. OURS!

I hate to reveal this secret, but here it goes:

Every one of the E.U. countries has:

•Universal free health care.
•Free or nearly-free college.
•Paid Family Leave for at least four months.

•Complete care of all elderly.

•Robust funding of schools.

•All sorts of help for the jobless and the poor.

•Workers enjoy mandatory paid vacation with a minimum of four weeks off (some countries are almost double that).

•Women having full equal rights. Abortion and birth control is free and easily available in all but two E.U. countries (Malta and Poland). Most of their constitutions have what we don’t have — an equal rights clause for all women.


The list goes on. And not just social safety net policies. Portugal has stopped mass incarceration and made possession of drugs legal — and has seen drug use go down because they treat drug addiction as a medical problem, not a crime.

Countries like Slovenia and Germany not only have free college, they will let any foreign student come there and attend college for free. Yes, you read that right. They will even let American students come to their countries and get a free four-year degree! What? You say you can’t speak Slovenian? No problem! They have a whole curriculum taught in English!

Spain, France, Italy and others all have high speed affordable bullet trains. Cheap mass transit is everywhere.

In Austria you can vote at 16. Teenagers have held seats in the Austrian parliament!

In Norway, when you commit a crime you spend a few years going to school, learning a trade, making amends to those whom you’ve hurt — and no sentence can be longer than 21 years (including for the mass murderer of 77 people, mostly teenagers).

Yes, other countries have their own problems. But, while American school boards are enacting rules prohibiting teaching students about the history of American slavery, racism and genocide, these other countries REQUIRE its young people to be taught about their own evil past (and present) in the hopes that the next generation won’t make their parents’ mistakes. So German students are thoroughly enmeshed in learning about the Holocaust. French students are taught about their brutal colonial past in Algeria and Vietnam. Irish students are well aware of the abuse caused by the Catholic Church. Spanish students get courses on the evils of fascism and Spain’s fascist past. Antifa, you say? Right down the hall in Room 104, 3rd Hour social studies with Señora Valdez!

Yes, we are a laughing stock. Biden’s “humiliation” this week in Europe is that the nation he leads is a brute to its own people. It’s not that the other leaders are laughing at him. They feel sorry for him. They pity us. “Those poor Americans!” Most people around the world actually like us. They admire our creativity and inventiveness. Which makes their incredulity even worse — they simply can’t figure out why in a democracy we allow this misery to continue! Why we haven’t thrown the bastards out. Why 50+1 votes out of 100 senators isn’t called a majority. American math says 60 out of 100 is the majority. We look like idiots. The Europeans, the Japanese, the Australians, the Argentinians, the South Africans — they don’t hate us. They pity us and they cannot friggin’ figure us out.

And they fear us. Not because of our weapons and desire to invade other countries (although they should remain very, very afraid of that). No. They’re afraid because, if we treat our own people this way, if we require an enforced ignorance and teach lies to our students, then what they truly fear is what will happen to this planet if the wealthiest nation, the one blessed with the most resources on Earth, shits so easily and happily on itself. It is MIND-BOGGLING to the rest of the world that we are so hell-bent on destroying our Democracy and ourselves.

I do feel sorry for Joe Biden sitting on that world stage this week. But not because he couldn’t get an infrastructure bill passed. It’s because he has to sit there over Scottish tea and explain why our old people are now finally going to get to have free hearing aids! — but not glasses, and not a visit to the dentist. “You see,” Uncle Joe will explain, hanging his head, “in America, if you are old, you do have a right to hear — but not to see. And not to chew. God Bless America.”

Michael Moore


Cited and related links:

  1. rsn.org

Comments Start Below


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Comments on "Yes, We Are a Laughing Stock":

  1. by HatetheSwamp on November 2, 2021 11:32 am

    Donna,

    Re: The pundits howled. “Biden goes to Europe as a weakened president!

    This is ludicrous. If they're saying that they're fools. The former 18 wheeler driver ain't weakened. He's weak.

    He frail. He's brainless. And, it's not the task of the rest of the government to hold him up and present an image of Joe as anything approaching normal. And, the rest of the world knows how idiotically he mangled Afghanistan...and that our citizens are still in Afghanistan, abandoned by him. It knows the chaos he's created on our southern border and of the weakening state of our economy.

    I've been wondering what Joe might have accomplished if he'd been true to the spirit of his campaign and conducted himself as the President of all Americans, even of the people who voted against him...

    ...if he'd sought a middle ground and appealed to the vast political middle and shepherded through Congress a bill that advanced the wishes of that mammoth silent majority.

    Remember how monumentally popular he was at the beginning? He's attempting to foist on the people in purple places an electric blue agenda when he promised that he wouldn't be that he'd be a purple President.

    As always, ultimately, I blame you. You're bright enough to know that you voted for a dimwit who was experiencing cognitive decline.

    If America is a laughingstock, it's on you.


  2. by Donna on November 2, 2021 12:43 pm
    Nonsense. Your party is automatically voting against even the weakened bill. Because they want Biden's presidency to fail. Your party is the sole reason America is a laughing stock. Outside of America's horrendous foreign policy, your party is engaged in a level of cruelty I've never seen before in my entire life.


  3. by HatetheSwamp on November 2, 2021 12:54 pm

    Donna,

    "My" party is a non issue.

    And, that may be the most exquisite evidence that I am correct.

    Joe's demented plan disregards the GOPs and assumes that his agenda would be opposed by...and, be an insult to, the dreams and values of everyone it represents.

    The exquisite truth is that Joe's party runs the entire legislative shebang and Joe can neither lead nor control his own people... people who have a vested interest in assuring Joe's success.

    Everything that you accuse the GOP of being responsible for could have easily been reversed...

    ...except for the ineptitude of "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap." His party is begging him to be even the slightest bit competent and he ain't.


  4. by islander on November 2, 2021 1:55 pm

    Donna,

    Michael More sounds like me sometimes when I'm feeling down and thinking negatively, but then I try to remind myself of the other, real, side of all this.

    First, Biden saved our country and the American people from another 4 years of Trump. That alone is priceless! I never expected Biden to have an easy time of it even if he won and I had some serious doubts right up to the end that he might not actually be able to do it. After four years I was beginning to believe the phony Teflon Don myth. Even though Biden “technically” controls congress and that sounds good at first but the Senate still has ultimate control and can do a lot of damage especially since the Democrats are a more diverse group, which means they don’t always vote party first. But the main thing is Trump no longer holds the highest office in the land. It’s going to take years to rebuild what he, in so many ways, destroyed.

    Second, Trump no longer controls the Justice Department so I am very optimistic about what we are going to see in the coming months with regard to Trump and his administration finally being held accountable for their crimes.

    Third, even if they try to put a blindfold over their eyes, his supporters, like Hate, can’t help but see that one by one Trump’s enablers at the top of the Republican party are distancing themselves from him. They know (probably even more than us) that they are caught between a rock and a hard place. Some of them now are openly challenging him.



  5. by HatetheSwamp on November 2, 2021 2:14 pm

    Third, even if they try to put a blindfold over their eyes, his supporters, like Hate, can’t help but see that one by one Trump’s enablers at the top of the Republican party are distancing themselves from him.


    Yikes!

    How blind can you be, isle!!!!!?

    The SwampGOPs...at the top of the party...have never been with Trump. Why do you think that the party never took seriously the considerable evidence that there were irregularities in the counting of ballots?

    Moscow Mitch and his ilk could not wait to run Trump out of DC.

    And, like me, they'll resist his efforts, if they happen, to be the GOP candidate in 024 and, like me, they'll only come aboard when the only remaining alternative is a Dem.


  6. by islander on November 2, 2021 4:16 pm

    Hate writes: ” The SwampGOPs...at the top of the party...have never been with Trump. Why do you think that the party never took seriously the considerable evidence that there were irregularities in the counting of ballots?”

    Of course they knew the voter fraud thing was all a lie, but they were able to convince you and the other Trump cult followers to believe it. And even after some of his followers finally realized it was a lie, they could still count on them to continue to spread the lie. It’s what they do to keep the country torn apart so that they can go about their dirty business.

    With Trump, they thought they could dance with the devil and come out on top…but that never ends well.


  7. by islander on November 3, 2021 5:31 am

    Donna,

    I think this helps to balance things out when the sensationalism of the news media begins to wear one down.

    ”We assumed everything would be fine again once these [challenges of the Trump years[ were behind us. But we now find ourselves in a disorienting limbo. There is no clearly‑demarcated “behind us.”

    Reich goes on to say that “If you’re not at least a bit disappointed, you’re not human.” But he follows his acknowledgements of disappointment with a passage I wish I had written:

    I’ve learned a few things in my half-century in and around politics, and my many years teaching young people. One is that things often look worse than they really are. The media (including social media) sells subscriptions and advertising with stories that generate anger and disappointment. The same goes for the views of pundits and commentators: Pessimists always appear wiser than optimists.

    That is a phrase worth remembering: “Pessimists always appear wiser than optimists.” I would add, “And it’s always easier to be a pessimist than an optimist” because the former needs only to identify problems, while the latter must propose solutions.

    I recommend that you read Reich’s essay in its entirety. It is a good way to begin another week of the hard work demanded by democracy.”
    *
    * Robert B. Hubbell

    roberthubbell.substack.com
    robertreich.substack.com


  8. by Donna on November 3, 2021 5:55 am
    I didn't assume that everything would be fine again after Biden was elected. I knew that between a Democratic Congress full of centrists and a Republican Congress full of obstructionists that it would be nearly impossible for him to pass an agenda that would significantly help working class Americans.


  9. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 7:39 am

    Democratic Congress full of centrists and a Republican Congress full of obstructionists

    Wow, Donna. Of all the progressives here, I think of you as being a sanctimone far, far less than the others.

    However, I'm stunned by your description of GOPs in Congress as being, merely, obstructionists. As I read that, you're suggesting that these people don't believe in anything at all but that they are present only to stand between you and your goals.

    Tell me that your characterization but poorly chosen...

    ... because a progressive sanctimone would disrespect the other side by suggesting that it doesn't have beliefs, or principles.


  10. by Donna on November 3, 2021 7:52 am
    Please don't call me a progressive. My positions vary by issue. There is no word that summarizes the entirety of my viewpoints.

    I'm criticizing the centrist Dems too. They along with the entire Republican Party very clearly are doing the bidding of the corporations that bankroll their re-election campaigns instead of regular people.


  11. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 8:17 am

    Fair enough, Donna. I'll think of you as enigmatic...if you think that of me.

    It does seem to me, though, that your sanctimony is showing. I gave you a chance and you insist on suggesting that the GOPs have no beliefs or principles but are simply pawns put in place, by evil people, to stand in the way of what you want.

    Say it ain't so. Say that ain't so.


  12. by Donna on November 3, 2021 8:26 am
    Not only what I want - almost all of the proposals in Build Back Better are what most Americans want, even Republican voters. The swamp is preventing those things from happening while the rest of the free world is enjoying policies that we can't even get through the Democrats.



  13. by Curt_Anderson on November 3, 2021 9:03 am
    "Not only what I want - almost all of the proposals in Build Back Better are what most Americans want, even Republican voters. The swamp is preventing those things from happening while the rest of the free world is enjoying policies that we can't even get through the Democrats." --Donna

    You say blame the "swamp"; I say blame the voters. In particular voters im states like West Virginia, Mississippi and Alabama. They invariably vote for conservative Democrats like Joe Manchin or more often than not, Republicans. These are the people who need a social safety net the most and to pay the least in federal taxes yet they vote for fiscal conservatives.




  14. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 9:33 am

    These are the people who need a social safety net the most and to pay the least in federal taxes yet they vote for fiscal conservatives.

    Right. Thinking you know what other people need than they themselves do.


  15. by Donna on November 3, 2021 9:37 am
    Right - voters too. The truth of the matter, though, is that the swamp will remain the swamp, and stupid voters will remain stupid voters. As a result, America will continue to be the shitholiest nation in the free world. I have no idea how to change America's trajectory, and no one else does either, although a lot of people pretend that they know.

    In another thread, islander implied that I should be more optimistic. Actually -- and my wife can vouch for this -- generally speaking I'm an optimistic person, that is, when there's reason for optimism. But first and foremost, I'm realistic. IMO unwarranted happy talk accomplishes nothing except to give people a false sense of hope. I think it's better to hear the unvarnished truth so you can better prepare for things to come.


  16. by Donna on November 3, 2021 9:38 am
    "In another thread..." LOL, it's in this thread. I'm trying to do 3 things at once.


  17. by Donna on November 3, 2021 9:41 am
    Bill - Actually those people are strongly in favor of expanding things like Medicare and social services. There's been extensive polling on this.


  18. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 9:41 am

    Not only what I want - almost all of the proposals in Build Back Better are what most Americans want, even Republican voters.

    I think there's a pretty serious logical fallacy here.

    It doesn't stand to reason that because ALMOST ALL of the components of BBB are congenial to MOST Americans that Americans necessarily support BBB as a whole package.

    You do know that, don't you?



  19. by Curt_Anderson on November 3, 2021 10:00 am
    HtS,
    So clear up the fallacy. What component(s) of Build Back Better are these voters. against? See link below...
    whitehouse.gov


  20. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 10:16 am

    You linked to White House propaganda!!!!!?

    Thanks. I needed that like I need another hole in my head.

    I have a feeling that I know what you think of Joe Manchin but the last thing I heard from him resonates.

    He's saying, essentially, that he needs to see, in convincing concrete terms, how your 1.75-3.5 effin TRILLION grab bad of goodies is going to be paid for.

    "That feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" keeps mumbling that it won't cost anything because it's paid for. But, Joe lies...or, at least, he's frequently misstating fact and, a great majority of Americans neither believe nor trust the former 18 wheeler driver.

    And, there's the fact that, while, in a theoretical way, people may not turn their backs on the BBB goodies, most people aren't dreaming wild dreams about receiving them.

    Purple state Dem Senators and purple district Dem Housers just learned that, if they vote for BBB, they're most likely going to be sent home in a year.

    It's not, practically speaking, popular.


  21. by Curt_Anderson on November 3, 2021 10:50 am
    HtS,
    You sure go to a lot effort to avoid saying, "I got nothing".

    You couldn't list a single component of BBB that you think voters disapprove of. I gave you the White House link, but you could have found and used your own source to find some unpopular component of BBB.

    Bottom line, there is no logical fallacy by Donna or me and there are voters who vote against their own self-interest.


  22. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 2:16 pm

    The logical fallacy is the conclusion that because most people favor the components of anything that they must, therefore, support the whole thing.


  23. by Curt_Anderson on November 3, 2021 2:23 pm
    HtS,
    I now know what it must be like to be a dentist. Getting you to say which components of BBB that your think would be unpopular with some voters is like pulling teeth.


  24. by HatetheSwamp on November 3, 2021 2:31 pm

    Curt,

    That's not what I was saying, but...

    unpopular with some voters

    All of it is unpopular with SOME voters.

    Face it. If people really want this, Congress people in DC would be hearing about it.

    Big time!


  25. by Donna on November 3, 2021 5:35 pm
    Face it - you have nothing.


  26. by HatetheSwamp on November 4, 2021 1:52 am

    What we both got is that Dems control both Houses of Congress and occupy the White House and this piece of legislation that is soooooooo popular can't be passed...even in a scaled down form.


  27. by islander on November 4, 2021 5:16 am

    "this piece of legislation that is soooooooo popular can't be passed...even in a scaled down form. ---Hate

    What we know is that a good political con man can manipulate people's emotions such that they can get an awful lot people, the con men call them marks, to do things that are not in the mark's best interest.

    If the mark would like it if some of their tax dollars could help pay their medical bills, a good con man can manipulate their emotions, usually through fear, to vote against the government helping them.





  28. by Donna on November 4, 2021 6:29 am
    The NY Times has an interesting piece on this subject this morning in the free report they publish daily called "The Morning".

    Culture over money

    They are among the most affluent places in America: Arlington, Fairfax and Loudoun Counties, in Northern Virginia; Upper Montclair, N.J.; Scarsdale, N.Y.; Wilmette, Ill.; Palo Alto and Malibu, Calif; and Mercer Island, Wash.

    In each, six-figure incomes are the norm, and seven-figure incomes are not rare, which means that many residents would pay higher taxes if Democratic proposals were to become law.

    And yet these places vote overwhelmingly for Democrats. Even this week, which did not go well for Democrats, many affluent suburbs were colored blue on election maps. In Arlington, Va., Terry McAuliffe, the Democratic candidate for governor, won about 77 percent of the vote. Last year, President Biden won a similarly large share in Scarsdale and some other high-income towns — and about 90 percent in several California and New England suburbs. (Look up your town.)

    Democrats often lament that so many working-class Americans vote against their own economic interests, by supporting Republicans who try to cut health care programs, school funding and more. A 2004 book summarized the liberal frustration with the title, “What’s the Matter With Kansas?”

    But working-class conservatives are hardly the only voters who prioritize issues other than their financial situation. The residents of the affluent towns I mentioned above — and I could have listed dozens more — also do. Which raises a different question: What’s the matter with Scarsdale?

    The answer, of course, is nothing. Pocketbook issues aren’t the only reasonable ones to decide a person’s vote. Other subjects, like climate change, civil rights, religious rights, abortion, immigration, crime, education and Covid-19, are important, too.


    A Virginia trouncing

    For much of the 20th century, Democrats were the party of the working class, while Republicans were the party of suburban professionals. In recent decades, however, politics has changed.

    People vote based less on their income and more on their cultural attitudes, as my colleague Nate Cohn has explained. Sometimes, these attitudes are related to specific matters of policy, like immigration or abortion. Other times, they involve more personal subjects, like religion or patriotism.

    “As they’ve grown in numbers, college graduates have instilled increasingly liberal cultural norms while gaining the power to nudge the Democratic Party to the left,” Nate wrote. “Partly as a result, large portions of the party’s traditional working-class base have defected to the Republicans.”


    The defections have increased over the past decade. Barack Obama won voters without a bachelor’s degree in both of his presidential victories. Biden lost them narrowly last year. In Virginia this week, McAuliffe was trounced — by between 10 and 20 percentage points, depending on the exit poll — among voters without a bachelor’s degree. He particularly lost ground with white working-class women, according to CNN.

    Race plays an important role here. Republicans — including Donald Trump, but not limited to him — have won more working-class votes partly by appealing to white identity. In Virginia, Glenn Youngkin, the Republican governor-elect, used a version of this strategy. He went so far as to release an ad in which a white mother complained about her son’s high school class reading a classic novel by Toni Morrison.

    But many Democrats have made the mistake of believing that the working-class shift is all about racism. It’s not. Consider that the contemporary Democrat who fared best with the white working class was Obama. Or that some divisive cultural debates, like those involving religion, don’t map neatly onto race.

    The clearest sign that the shift involves both racial and other causes comes from recent election results: Democrats are no longer doing as well as they once did in Asian, Black and Latino communities. Trump fared better with voters of color in 2020 than in 2016. In Virginia, some of McAuliffe’s most disappointing totals came in heavily Hispanic precincts, according to Nate’s analysis.

    This year’s mayoral election in New York offered a similar lesson. Eric Adams beat more liberal Democratic candidates with an anti-crime message that appealed to a multiracial coalition of working-class voters across the Bronx, Brooklyn, Queens and Staten Island. The only borough Adams lost in the primary was affluent, highly educated Manhattan.

    Values, not white papers

    I don’t mean to suggest that there are easy answers for the Democratic Party. The rightward drift of workers has been an international phenomenon. Yet unless Democrats try to address their working-class slide — which has room to become worse — they may struggle to hold power in coming years, especially in the Senate.

    What are their options? Democrats can’t win over the working class by talking about only economic issues, any more than Republicans can win Scarsdale simply by saying “Tax cuts now!” Policy proposals, of any kind, may not even be the full answer: Some political scientists believe that Democrats talk too much about policy and not enough about values. Regardless, Democrats likely do need to write off some voters because of their racial attitudes.

    Still, that would leave tens of millions of working-class Americans who are open to voting for Democrats without being loyal to the party. These voters span racial groups. They tend to be worried about crime and political correctness, however they define it. They have mixed feelings about immigration and abortion laws. They favor many progressive positions on economic policy. They are skeptical of experts. Most believe in God and in a strong America.

    If Democrats are going to win more of these voters, they will probably need to listen to them and make some changes, rather than telling them that they’re irrational for voting Republican. Over the past generation, Democrats have won over more college graduates by listening to them — and then creating a party that reflects their views on almost every issue. Politics is hard, but it is not always mysterious.


    See the survey results at the link below regarding education level and attitudes about the "American way of life", foreign influence, and crime.
    static01.nyt.com


  29. by HatetheSwamp on November 4, 2021 6:34 am

    What we know is that a good political con man can manipulate people's emotions such that they can get an awful lot people, the con men call them marks, to do things that are not in the mark's best interest.

    Who's the con man?


  30. by HatetheSwamp on November 4, 2021 6:51 am

    I don’t mean to suggest that there are easy answers for the Democratic Party. The rightward drift of workers has been an international phenomenon.

    This statement raises what, to me, is the crucial issue, that of perspective. Have workers drifted to the right, or has the Dem party bolted to the left?

    If a candidate who held the policy positions of JFK ran for the Dem nomination in 024 would s/he have the chance of a snowball in hell? How about Bubba, even? I doubt it.

    As I said on the other forum many times, I was a Dem until I was about 60. I didn't vote for my first GOP for President until I was in my 40s.

    The time came when I could no longer justify to myself my registration as a Dem.

    I was, essentially, a JFK, LBJ Dem. I don't recognize much of that in the Dem party these days.

    To me, the Dems are the party of coastal elites. Most people don't want to be a part of that.


  31. by islander on November 4, 2021 6:59 am

    "Who's the con man?" ---Hate

    It's conmen .


  32. by Donna on November 4, 2021 7:08 am
    I voted for Bush in 1988 and Bush Jr. in 2000, before I was really engaged in politics, which happened after 9/11. Soon after 9/11, I lost my job and I suddenly had a lot of time to read, which was further facilitated by the growth of the internet.

    I don't see the Democrats as having surged to the left. Can you give me some examples, Bill?


  33. by HatetheSwamp on November 4, 2021 11:38 am

    isle,

    Who are the conmen?


  34. by HatetheSwamp on November 4, 2021 11:46 am

    Really, Donna?

    You should have been aware during the LBJ era.

    Do you imagine that Dems in those days had the same sense of patriotism as Dems do today?

    The Dems didn't have the same commitment to abortion as the issue that defined orthodoxy as they have come to fanatically embrace.

    Can you imagine JFK or LBJ proposing the BBB fiasco? Because they wouldn't have proposed it and they wouldn't have supported it.

    Do you remember that Bubba Clinton signed the Defense of Marriage Act?


  35. by Donna on November 4, 2021 5:18 pm
    I was in elementary school when LBJ was president. Not too many young children follow politics.


  36. by Donna on November 4, 2021 5:24 pm
    How Democrats can get their act together

    President Biden is on the verge of accomplishing more in his first year than any president in recent memory despite unremitting obstruction from an unhinged opposition. Yet he is struggling with plunging poll numbers and a painful rebuke in Virginia’s gubernatorial race. It’s worth recounting how the gap between Biden’s considerable policy accomplishments and his political fortunes emerged.

    To review, the economy on Biden’s watch has created nearly 5 million new jobs, reducing unemployment to 4.8 percent. Despite the right wing’s effort to spread deadly disinformation about vaccinations, 80 percent of American adults — including 98 percent of those older than 65 — have had a least one coronavirus vaccination. Among those age 12 and older, 78 percent have had at least one shot.

    On the legislative front, few would have predicted that Biden, despite having only 50 Democratic votes in the Senate, would have passed in his first year a $1.9 trillion American Rescue Plan (including a major increase in the child tax credit that reduced child poverty in half). Even more impressive, he is poised to pass both a $1.2 trillion infrastructure plan and a $1.75 trillion package including investments in green energy, universal prekindergarten, a generous child-care subsidy, improved senior care, expansion of Affordable Care Act subsidies, an extension of refundable child tax credits, a significant housing investment, hearing benefits for Medicare and possibly even a prescription drug cost reduction for patients on Medicare.

    “Transformational” is an overused descriptor. But no president since FDR can claim as dramatic a reorientation of government from his immediate predecessor.

    Meanwhile, the media, having pronounced Biden no better than his predecessor on foreign policy and responsible for a loss of faith in American leadership (after ending a 20-year war), are now at pains to explain allies’ enthusiastic embrace of Biden at the Group of 20 and COP26 summits. He leaves with historic commitments to curtail deforestation and methane emissions.

    So why are Biden’s poll numbers down? Why are so many wringing their hands about the fate of his presidency (some certain that the 45th president will be back in power in 2025)? And why were Virginia’s election results so poor?

    Several factors explain the perception gap, not all of Biden’s making. First, partisans on both sides and horserace-centric pundits in the media continually stress what Biden has not achieved. No paid family leave! Democrats didn’t get even more taxes on the rich! Apparently, getting three-quarters of an ambitious agenda is no longer a victory. If losing out on paid family leave and expansion of Medicare coverage to vision and dental benefits while bringing home a bushel of other legislative results amounts to “failure,” then no president can be considered a success.

    Second, many Americans continue to experience anxiety and uncertainty. Concern about inflation (transitory or not), coupled with job churn, ongoing worry about covid-19, stress from managing their children’s disrupted lives and an epidemic of mental illness, makes for disagreeable voters. In a nation that increasingly associates the president with “the government” and the “government” with American life, it is hardly surprising that he bears the brunt of that angst.

    Third, the president faces the MAGA-infused hysteria that he is out to persecute Whites, “open” borders and turn the country into a socialist hell. The right wing’s strategy to gin up fake outrage is aided by too many in the media unwilling to speak plainly (for example, refusing to explain that no K-12 schools teach critical race theory). With more than 90 percent of the GOP in a constant frenzy, no Democratic president could gain any significant support beyond Democrats and Democratic-leaners.

    Fourth, the media’s obsession with process and unwillingness to grapple with substance mean that “Democrats in disarray” dominates the headlines and the public remains largely ignorant of legislative proposals. “Takes” on whether Biden is up or down have replaced factual explanation (e.g., what is in the president’s plan, whom does it help, how does it affect the economy), threatening a critical cornerstone of democracy: an informed public.

    But Democrats are hardly blameless. The stubborn and self-absorbed resistance to the White House’s reconciliation bill from two Democratic senators has taken a toll. In dragging out negotiations for months, often providing contradictory or incoherent objections and attacking policy agreements forged among Democratic lawmakers, Sens. Joe Manchin III (W.Va.) and Kyrsten Sinema (Ariz.) have done real damage to their party and fed the perception of dysfunction/inaction. (Progressives, by contrast, have demonstrated remarkable flexibility.)

    The days of LBJ grabbing recalcitrant Democrats by the scruff of the neck are long gone. Even still, because Biden did not take a tougher line with Manchin and Sinema and did not break the rest of his agenda into smaller bites, the party fell into an interminable legislative slog with real political consequences.

    Worse, Biden has so far failed to provide a unifying theme for his massive legislative agenda. “Build Back Better” is vague, if not opaque. His impressive agenda needs a concise message: “It’s about time working and middle-class Americans got something.”

    Democrats are often accused of “waging class warfare.” If only they would give it a try. The best-kept secret in the Biden era may be that under the Democrats’ plan, the rich would pay more, and virtually all the economic benefits would go to struggling families. The second-best kept secret: Republicans want tax cheats to prevail and billionaires and big corporations to avoid taxes. Put differently, Democrats have not embraced their greatest strength: economic populism.

    When it comes to political combat, Democrats’ tactics have been wholly insufficient. Although the media deserve ample criticism for treating politics like a spectator sport and the parties as morally equivalent, Biden’s benighted effort to curry favor with congressional Republicans and deny the ex-president attention allows the GOP’s malicious rhetoric to go unchecked. If the White House does not make the case against its opponents’ nihilism, lies and anti-democratic mindset, no one else will. Biden must get over the notion that he can “lower the temperature” by refusing to zero in on GOP leaders’ assault on democracy and truth.

    Biden is suffering from unrealistic expectations, his party’s lack of singular coordination and his refusal to fight GOP fire with fire. He better get his legislative agenda passed and go on offense. Otherwise, the party and the country will be in deep trouble.

    Jennifer Rubin




    washingtonpost.com


  37. by Donna on November 4, 2021 5:38 pm
    "Can you imagine JFK or LBJ proposing the BBB fiasco? Because they wouldn't have proposed it and they wouldn't have supported it." - Someone who believe's he's God

    You're so full of yourself... as well as something else.

    America had a strong middle class then. We had no need to Build Back Batter - we were still in the process of doing that ever since FDR's New Deal. Corporate lobbyists weren't nearly the force in Washington they are today. And trickle down economics wasn't a thing until Reagan, who opposed Medicare, foisted it on the working class.

    We're a different country now. We had things much better than the rest of the free world then. Now that situation is reversed, mostly because of your party.


  38. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 4:44 am

    Donna,

    I can't tell you how absurd I think this whole thing is. It strikes me as the rantings of someone so far out of touch with reality that can't tell the truth because they can't see the truth. Yet, I know that many people, like you I'm certain, agree with this word for word.

    As an example of Ms Rubin's disconnection from reality:

    The days of LBJ grabbing recalcitrant Democrats by the scruff of the neck are long gone. Even still, because Biden did not take a tougher line with Manchin and Sinema and did not break the rest of his agenda into smaller bites, the party fell into an interminable legislative slog with real political consequences.

    LBJ's great civil rights legislation was passed because the GOPs voted for it. LBJ couldn't manhandle the Dems. Many, including Al Gore Sr, obstinately refused to support it.

    Joe Biden will, most likely, out Jimmy Carter Jimmy Carter. In my opinion, James Buchanan was the worst President in US history but Joe's giving him a run for his money.

    Joe's an empty suit. He has no ability to lead. Heck. After those few accomplishments the article mentions, during the early honeymoon, he's lost his ability to lead his own party...which has a vested interest in his success.


  39. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 4:48 am

    And, regarding your second post, we are a different country now and the Dems have chosen to become the party of the elites. They were, back in the day, the party of Joe Average. Now, as the Virginia election proves, they drip with disdain for the common person.


  40. by islander on November 5, 2021 5:43 am

    ”Who are the conmen?”---Hate

    I have no doubt that you know what a con man is or how they operate, AND you know how difficult it is for the mark, the one being conned, to recognize or admit that they are or were being conned…and no one is completely immune to it.

    Here’s what I said;
    ”What we know is that a good political con man can manipulate people's emotions such that they can get an awful lot people, the con men call them marks, to do things that are not in the mark's best interest.”

    I think the con man’s traits; dishonesty, sleaziness, a lack of empathy etc. are a built in part of a con man’s character. Politicians, salesmen, and religious leaders are professions that are lucrative for con men. Of course not all are by any means con men.

    Trump is of course a prime example of a political com-man, simply watch and listen to him in the link I provided to see him in action. Then we have those in the religious field like Jim Baker and Joel Osteen. Unscrupulous and dishonest salesmen are what most people probably think of when they picture a con man, but again, as I said not all salesmen are by any means con men.


    therecount.com


  41. by islander on November 5, 2021 5:48 am

    Hate,

    Here's an even better example of a con man in action.
    calltoactionpac.org


  42. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 6:33 am

    isle,

    If I'm understanding you, this is good news for the antiSwamp side... presuming that you represent the majority of Swampcult Blue MAGA progressives.

    So, you're ranting significantly about Trump? Did you notice how well Youngkin kept Trump at arm's length and how enthusiastically Virginia antiSwamp people voted for him nonetheless?

    In Virginia, though, it seems to me that the character who possessed the qualities of a con man was Terry McAuliffe. And, the majority didn't fall for it. Encouraging,eh!!!!!?


  43. by Donna on November 5, 2021 9:53 am
    Bill - LBJ had trouble with the Dixiecrats (see map at the first link below) - racists like Strom Thurmond who was a Democrat then and later became a Republican after Nixon's Southern Strategy.

    When the bill came before the full Senate for debate on March 30, 1964, the "Southern Bloc" of 18 southern Democratic Senators and lone Republican John Tower of Texas, led by Richard Russell, launched a filibuster to prevent its passage.[23] Russell proclaimed, "We will resist to the bitter end any measure or any movement which would tend to bring about social equality and intermingling and amalgamation of the races in our [Southern] states."[24]
    United States President Lyndon B. Johnson signs the Civil Rights Act of 1964. Among the guests behind him is Martin Luther King Jr.

    Strong opposition to the bill also came from Senator Strom Thurmond, who was still a Democrat at the time: "This so-called Civil Rights Proposals [sic], which the President has sent to Capitol Hill for enactment into law, are unconstitutional, unnecessary, unwise and extend beyond the realm of reason. This is the worst civil-rights package ever presented to the Congress and is reminiscent of the Reconstruction proposals and actions of the radical Republican Congress."[25]

    After the filibuster had gone on for 54 days, Senators Mansfield, Hubert Humphrey, Mike Mansfield, Everett Dirksen, and Thomas Kuchel introduced a substitute bill that they hoped would overcome it by combining a sufficient number of Republicans as well as core liberal Democrats. The compromise bill was weaker than the House version as to the government's power in regulating the conduct of private business, but not weak enough to make the House reconsider it.[26]
    from second Wikipedia link below
    en.wikipedia.org
    en.wikipedia.org


  44. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 10:20 am

    Exactamundo!


  45. by islander on November 5, 2021 11:47 am

    I haven’t been keeping up with VA state politics and don’t really know much about Youngkin but my impression is that both Youngkin and McAuliffe are probably more salesmen than con men. All politicians in my opinion have to be fairly good salesmen in order to be able to persuade people to vote for them. Naturally, I’m happy to see that there are now some Republican politicians who are beginning to disassociate themselves from Trump. 


    Yet there are those Republican politicians that, even while knowing who and what Trump is, still support and enable him. I have little doubt that some of them are con men and others are just unprincipled scoundrels who will do anything to get what they want...And I imagine it’s possible that some are themselves “marks”.


  46. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 12:00 pm

    I have little doubt that some of them are con men and others are just unprincipled scoundrels who will do anything to get what they want...

    isle,

    You're describing a significant number of politicians of both parties.

    That's why an increasing number of us Hate the Swamp.

    You should join us.


  47. by islander on November 5, 2021 12:25 pm

    Hate,



    You’re in the second stage of those Trump supporters and enablers who have come to realize that they were taken in by Trump and the “New Republican Party” but cannot acknowledge it, so to save face and justify their terrible mistake they appeal to the logical fallacy of false equivalency.


  48. by islander on November 5, 2021 12:49 pm

    Here's a bit of the history of how the parties have changed from 50 years ago. The New Republican Party of today is the latest version of the old conservative southern Democrats the "Dixicrats".
    billmoyers.com


  49. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 12:50 pm

    Not me, isle. I despise Trump. I think he's despicable.


  50. by islander on November 5, 2021 2:33 pm

    "Not me, isle. I despise Trump. I think he's despicable." ---Hate

    Yes, we've heard your disclaimers before but Trump enablers like yourself don't have to like him. I'm sure many of his enablers don't care for him...However, despite knowing exactly who he is and what he is, and knowing the dangers he and his ilk pose to our Democracy, they will still vote to ensure that he keeps his power and holds the highest office in our nation. I have no doubt that by enabling Trump they are satisfied that they are doing what they think is in their own best interest and furthers their agenda no matter how distorted their agenda might actually be.


  51. by HatetheSwamp on November 5, 2021 2:48 pm

    So, tell me. Do you not know that Joe's brain is shot?


  52. by islander on November 5, 2021 4:07 pm

    No. I don't know that Biden's brain is shot... and neither do you.

    I do believe that he is not the most eloquent speaker nor the most charismatic. I do believe he is a better person than Donald Trump and I believe that the bills he is trying to get passed are things that we need to do now and they will be good for the American people and our country.


  53. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 4:58 am

    isle,

    I am absolutely am convinced that Joe's brain is shot. Actually, I can't believe you can say you do.

    During the decade or so my parents suffered from dementia, I encountered cognitive decline, in its many forms, intimately: Alzheimer's, the vascular dementia that took my dad's brain, other forms of dementia and cognitive decline not fully understood by today's medical science.

    Joe's brain is shot, no doubt. He's typical.

    As much as you criticize Trump supporters, the truth is that many of us have enough integrity to be honest with ourselves about him. Few go as far as I do to acknowledge that I despise Trump and that I think he's despicable...

    Your lack of honesty with yourself about "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" stuns, who thinks he's a former 18 wheeler driver befuddles and amuses me. You're a hoot, isle. Bahahahahahahaha!


  54. by Donna on November 6, 2021 6:27 am
    Most people aren't as sharp mentally when they're in their 70s and upwards from there as they were when they were younger. Sometimes the decline starts when they're younger. I don't have to say "honestly" because it's my nature to be honest, but I don't see Joe Biden as someone who's suffering from severe mental decline. But I'm not going to accuse you, Bill, of not being honest about what you see, because I'm not an arrogant ass.


  55. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 7:17 am

    No. Donna. But you are, every time you get the chance, conveniently naīve.


  56. by Donna on November 6, 2021 7:19 am
    What does the phrase "conveniently naive" mean?


  57. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 7:29 am

    Y'know, gang. There was a time when members of the SwampMedia were casting aspersions on the state of Trump's mind and he took a test to determine his cognitive state...which he nailed.

    One strong piece of evidence, among many, that "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" who thinks he's a former 18 wheeler driver does, in fact, suffer from dementia is that, in the face of the many calls that he be tested...

    ...and, I know, you're probably not aware that "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" has been challenged to be tested...

    ...because Rachel and the HuffPo ain't reporting that...

    ...the former 18 wheeler driver doesn't even have the integrity of OrangeMan and allow himself to be tested.

    Or, alternatively, he's been diagnosed with dementia and his smoke filled room handlers are hiding that fact.


  58. by Donna on November 6, 2021 7:35 am
    You certainly use a lot of words to say nothing.

    Btw, that cognitive test Trump took was hardly challenging. All that can be concluded from the results is that he isn't an idiot.


  59. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 7:42 am

    What does the phrase "conveniently naive" mean?

    I've been saying that about you for years. You don't understand English, now, eh?

    When it's convenient for you, you are suddenly lacking in knowledge, awareness or insight.

    In this case, it means that you are, apparently unaware of, or lack understanding, of the fact that Joe couldn't understand why France withdrew its ambassador and had to have John Kerry splain it to him or that he called an accurate report by the WSJ about his administration's proposed payments of nearly a half $million to the families of illegal immigrants "garbage" news or that he claimed once to have been an 18 wheeler driver.

    You are insightful and informed... until, of course, it's convenient for you not to be.


  60. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 7:52 am

    Btw, that cognitive test Trump took was hardly challenging. All that can be concluded from the results is that he isn't an idiot.

    Bahahahahahahaha, Donna. What do you think it suggests that "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" won't take that test!!!!!?

    Don't be conveniently naīve, please!


  61. by Donna on November 6, 2021 8:11 am
    IOW you're calling me a liar.


  62. by Donna on November 6, 2021 8:12 am
    Btw, I would refuse to take an idiot test too.


  63. by HatetheSwamp on November 6, 2021 8:52 am

    Donna, the one thing I would never accuse you of is being a liar.

    But, there are times that I think, "You can't handle the truth."

    At those times, from where I sit, you come across with insight and understanding that might be expected from a 7th grader in a Social Studies class.


  64. by Donna on November 6, 2021 9:00 am
    *yawn*

    More nothing - just weak attempts at insults.



  65. by islander on November 6, 2021 2:55 pm

    Hate wrote: ”During the decade or so my parents suffered from dementia, I encountered cognitive decline, in its many forms, intimately: Alzheimer's, the vascular dementia that took my dad's brain, other forms of dementia and cognitive decline not fully understood by today's medical science.

    Joe's brain is shot, no doubt. He's typical.”


    Using the cognitive decline of your parents as a debating tactic is pretty low. There are probably very few of us who have not witnessed, been affected by, and/or cared for a loved one as we watched their mental abilities decline as they sank into the tragic condition of dementia or Alzheimer’s.

    That experience doesn’t put you or me into a position where we have the ability to diagnose the mental health of Joe Biden or anyone else, especially people we don’t know, have never talked to, or have ever met. Virtually any reputable person trained and educated in the field of mental health will tell you exactly the same thing, that under those conditions, they would not nor could they evaluate and diagnose someone’s mental health, nor would it be ethical.

    So my answer to your question,”So, tell me. Do you not know that Joe's brain is shot?”, remains the same…”No. I don't know that Biden's brain is shot... and neither do you.”

    alzheimers.org.uk


  66. by Curt_Anderson on November 6, 2021 4:26 pm
    Islander,
    HtS and his "conclusions" about Biden's mental health remind me of people like Kyrie Irving and others who say, "I do my own research".

    Kyrie Irving Is Back on His Flat-Earth Theory Nonsense
    (Sports Illustrated)"When I started actually doing research on my own and figuring out that there is no real picture of Earth ... it becomes like conspiracy, too."

    Jeff Van Gundy mocks the idea of NBA players 'doing their own research' on COVID vaccine
    (USA Today)"I would like someone to answer this question," Van Gundy said during the preseason matchup between the Miami Heat and Houston Rockets. "What does that look like, you doing your own research?
    si.com
    usatoday.com


  67. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 4:21 am

    isle,

    It's amazing what the "school of hard knocks" teaches one.

    My parents moved to a very comfortable apartment in a retirement community for what turned out to be the last decade and a half of their lives.

    From the moment dad, whose cognitive decline became apparent first, the family moved them to an area of the "home" where they'd receive increasingly higher levels of care...among other residents who required a higher level of care.

    So, for about a decade we observed mom and dad's dementia as well as the mental state of all their friends and neighbors. Nearly all of their friends and neighbors were physically sound. They required care because they were not of sound mind, i.e., they all had dementia in some form and to some degree.

    I lived among the demented, many of them. For many years.

    Interestingly, a few years ago, we bought an apartment in a retirement community. Most of our neighbors are at least 10 years older than are we. And, the woman who lives next door is the sweetest woman. We've been neighbors for two years. And, to this day, every time we see her, from her perspective, we meet for the first time.

    From experience, I know as much about diagnosing dementia as many people who have professional training. And, honestly, diagnosing the fact that a person is suffering from dementia, isn't hard.

    Based on the hundreds of cases I've observed,...

    ... Joe's mind is shot.

    And, I hate how people are taking advantage of him.

    We've heard stories of how people will weasel themselves into the lives of the elderly, gain their trust, then take advantage of them and manipulate them for some evil purpose.

    In a sense, that's what's happening to Joe. When I quote Kathy McCollum and call Joe "that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap," I'm lamenting how people are suffering because a man, who is clearly incapable, is being manipulated into being an empty suited pawn of people who are using him.

    I'm certain that you won't allow yourself to conclude that Joe's mind is shot because you trust the people who are pulling his strings to be progressive.

    But, in the end, you're nothing more than an enabler of elder abuse.


  68. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 4:42 am

    Islander,
    HtS and his "conclusions" about Biden's mental health remind me of people like Kyrie Irving and others who say, "I do my own research".


    Interestingly, another way of saying, "I do my own research," is to demand to think for oneself and to refuse to be led around by the nose by others.

    I have done, and am doing, my own research. I demand to be able to think for myself.

    Interestingly, to me, when I chide you blue MAGAs for being sanctimonious, one reality packed into that claim is that, to those of us who demand the right to live for themselves, your side appears to be people who have been conned into thinking that you are enlightened sheep who, then, can condemn anyone who doesn't mindlessly follow the flock.

    I ain't doing "the Curt." I'm not going to follow along as if following along mindlessly is a virtue.

    As you know, I'm vaxxed and I'm very committed to continuing to be masked. But, I don't do it because Uncle Joe told me so.

    About six weeks ago, we had a very serious outbreak of COVID in our community. Nearly everyone who contracted the disease was vaxxed! Based on my research, being vaxxed isn't the panacea we once thought it was.

    I really think that you should break at least a short distance from the flock and attempt some independent thinking...as much as that seems not to come naturally to you.


  69. by islander on November 7, 2021 5:37 am

    Like I said, ” That experience doesn’t put you or me into a position where we have the ability to diagnose the mental health of Joe Biden or anyone else, especially people we don’t know, talked to, or have even ever met. Virtually any reputable person trained and educated in the field of mental health will tell you exactly the same thing, that under those conditions, they would not nor could they evaluate and diagnose someone’s mental health, nor would it be ethical.

    YoUR experience of “observing” people with dementia is not greater than mine and it does not put you on the same level with a mental health professional who has years of education and training.

    As much as you might like to think and boast that you are, as is obvious here with your amateur diagnosis of Joe Biden, you are not able to distinguish the differences between normal aging, dementia, Alzheimer’s, mixed dementia or vascular dementia.And you cannot do that with someone you’ve never even met, spoken with or examined, especially in its early stages.

    Your shameless phony concern for Joe Biden is blatantly obvious to anyone who has ever read your posts. You might want to learn a little more about these diseases and then you wouldn’t be so quick to think that you are on par with the professionals in this field and you’d less prone to violate their standards end ethics.

    Here are just a couple of examples straight from the Alzheimer’s Society:

    4 reasons NOT to diagnose dementia from afar

    1. The diagnosis will probably be wrong
    Human behaviours can have many possible causes. This is why we recommend seeking a thorough and professional assessment if you’re worried about your memory.

    If somebody is showing signs of confusion, for instance, there are lots of reasons why this could be. Infections, changes in medication, disturbed sleep, depression or stress are a few possible factors.

    There are several different types of dementia too, all of which are impossible to diagnose reliably without a person’s consent or cooperation. A professional diagnosis will include a personal ‘history’, as well as physical exams, cognitive tests and a scan of the brain if needed.

    Someone who knows the person well can often attend and provide helpful information, as well as support them through the process. In other words, you need both medical expertise and a person’s direct cooperation.

    2. It is unethical
    Donald Trump and Joe Biden are not the first politicians to be challenged about dementia or their mental health.

    In 1964, presidential candidate Barry Goldwater was the subject of a magazine article headlined ‘1,189 Psychiatrists say Goldwater is Psychologically Unfit to be President!’ The article hinged on an informal poll of US psychiatrists, none of whom had met the candidate.

    Goldwater lost the election, but his campaign successfully sued the magazine for defamation. This landmark case is the reason for the American Psychiatric Association’s Goldwater Rule, which warns psychiatrists in the US against diagnosis from a distance.

    The rule states:

    ‘On occasion psychiatrists are asked for an opinion about an individual who is in the light of public attention or who has disclosed information about himself/herself through public media.

    In such circumstances, a psychiatrist may share with the public his or her expertise about psychiatric issues in general. However, it is unethical for a psychiatrist to offer a professional opinion unless he or she has conducted an examination and has been granted proper authorization for such a statement.’*

    *(ALZHEIMER'S SOCIETY)



  70. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 6:10 am

    isle,

    If walks like a duck and quacks like a duck,...

    ..."that feckless dementia-ridden piece of crap" is a duck.

    Plain.

    Simple.


  71. by Donna on November 7, 2021 8:04 am
    Well if I ever need you to identify an animal I think might be a duck but I'm not sure, I'll make sure to ask you, Bill.


  72. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 9:03 am

    Apparently, you have difficulty recognizing the most simple things.

    My guess is that if Trump'd begin waxing nostalgic about his days as an 18 wheeler driver, you'd recognize his problem.


  73. by Donna on November 7, 2021 9:35 am
    I'm certainly not hoodwinked by horseshit like you are. You're the only one on this forum who falls for junk news. We haven't heard a peep out of you since Curt posted an article debunking that stupid story about the boy who wore a skirt which you made such a big deal about. LOL! You thought you had gold, didn't you? What a sap.


  74. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 9:42 am

    The kid was effin convicted.

    Get your fake news straight!!!!!

    I'd love to hear you peep about it now!
    dailymail.co.uk


  75. by Donna on November 7, 2021 9:50 am
    I can't tell if you forgot about the article Curt posted or if you're just being your usual dishonest self.

    Yes, the boy was convicted, but not for the reasons you parroted from junk news. The trans bathroom rule wasn't even policy when that incident happened, but you tried your best to blame it all on that policy.


  76. by HatetheSwamp on November 7, 2021 9:58 am

    Well, that was never my point.

    My point is that tranny biffs will only make this sort of thing easier.

    I was not aware at the time that this kid was a trailblazing sexual predator, ahead of his time, dressing as a tranny to be a pervert...

    ...but that doesn't change the point. Now sexual predators lacking his genius will be able to do exactly what he did. Ain't!!!!!?


  77. by Donna on November 7, 2021 10:04 am
    LOL! You're still parroting junk news and commentary!

    They've always been able to do that, Bill. Simple reasoning should tell you that. But they never do because it's too easy to get caught in a public restroom.


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