The New Election Interference Strategy

[Seattle or Bust]

Holy shit man, I actually agree with you on some of the Trump personality stuff but saying Biden is a mediocre POTUS is like saying Seby is a mediocre hitter. He is the worst fucking POTUS in the history of the country and it isn't even close.

I see you say that Biden is the worst president ever but I don't really see the context to back that up. I don't think he's really done anything drastically different from the Obama/Bush eras except that he's probably less compelling due to age. He's a very status quo president and like I've said, I'm not in love with the guy.

On President's Day, historians put out their Presidential Greatness Expert Survey. The group is made up of a mixture of self-identified Conservative, Centrist, and Liberal historians.

http://www.brandonrottinghaus.com/uploa ... r_2024.pdf

Experts responding to the survey who self-identified as conservatives rated Biden No. 30, while liberals put him 13th and moderates ranked him 20th. All three of those same groups ranked Trump, whose presidency was marked by his flouting of historical norms, in the bottom five.

So even conservatives historians rate Biden 30th/46th, centrists 20th/46th... far from worst... pretty average. Most of them think Trump was a terrible president.

This is just 2023!

Opinion The 10 worst things President Biden did in 2023

By Marc A. Thiessen
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December 29, 2023 at 6:00 a.m. EST

President Biden in the Oval Office on Oct. 19. (Demetrius Freeman/The Washington Post)
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After the disasters Joe Biden unleashed in 2022, I didn’t imagine his presidency could get worse — but it did. In my last column, I offered my list of the 10 best things President Biden did this year. Here are the 10 worst things Biden did in 2023:

10. He made the child-care crisis worse. As my Post colleague Alyssa Rosenberg and I pointed out in September, child-care costs have been rising at nearly twice the rate of inflation. We proposed expanding the State Department’s au pair program, making this lower-cost option available to more families. Instead, the Biden administration put forward a plan that would double the cost of hiring an au pair by tying compensation to state and local laws on minimum wage, which will effectively put the program out of reach for many working families.

9. He made us more dependent on Russian uranium. If Biden wants to speed Americans’ transition from fossil fuels to electricity, we will need more nuclear power. Yet the president restricted development on more than 1 million acres of land that includes the only U.S. source of high-grade uranium ore. Since the United States is the largest purchaser of Russian enriched uranium, the move increases our dependence on Russia at a time when we are trying to isolate Vladimir Putin.

Marc A. Thiessen: The 10 best things President Biden did in 2023

8. He circumvented the Supreme Court on student loan forgiveness. With the stroke of a pen, Biden tried in 2022 to cancel half a trillion dollars in student debt, only to see his unconstitutional plan blocked by the Supreme Court. So the president used other regulatory means to write off nearly $132 billion in student debt anyway — effectively forcing blue-collar workers to subsidize the higher education of white-collar professionals and launching a frontal assault on Congress’s power of the purse.


7. He failed to police antisemitism on the left. When Biden declared his candidacy for president in 2019, he condemned the right-wing bigots in Charlottesville “chanting the same antisemitic bile heard across Europe in the ’30s.” Yet he failed to forcefully confront the explosion of antisemitic bile on the left, from college campuses to Capitol Hill, after Hamas’s Oct. 7 terrorist attack on Israel.


What to know about the downed Chinese balloon
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U.S. fighter aircraft downed a Chinese spy balloon off the South Carolina coast on Feb. 4. (Video: The Washington Post)
6. He allowed a Chinese spy balloon to violate U.S. airspace. For days, the Biden administration did nothing to stop the 20-story Chinese craft until someone in Montana looked up at the sky and said: What the hell is that? Even Democrats, including former defense secretary and CIA director Leon Panetta, Sen. Jon Tester (Mont.) and Rep. Raja Krishnamoorthi (Ill.), called the president out for letting it sail over our country for a week before finally shooting it down over the Atlantic.


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5. He allowed Iran to attack U.S. forces with impunity. As president, Donald Trump drew a clear red line with Iran’s leaders, warning that the United States would respond militarily against Iran or its terrorist proxies if they killed a single American. He enforced this by taking out Iran’s terrorist mastermind, Qasem Soleimani, in 2020. On Oct. 7, Iran’s proxy Hamas killed more than 30 Americans during its attack against Israel. Since then, Iran’s partners in terror have carried out reportedly more than 100 attacks on U.S. forces in Iraq, Syria and the Red Sea. Yet Biden has imposed no cost on Iran, sending a message of weakness that invites more attacks.


4. He allowed the worst border crisis in U.S. history get even worse. In fiscal 2023, the record for the most encounters at the southern border was broken for the third straight year. Just before Christmas, there were more than 12,600 migrant encounters in a single day — the highest total ever recorded. A December Wall Street Journal poll found that 64 percent disapprove of Biden’s border policies, while just 27 percent approve.

3. He blocked allies from giving Ukraine a clear path to NATO membership. At a July summit in Vilnius, Lithuania, a majority of NATO allies wanted to set a specific timetable for Kyiv’s admission into the alliance, but Biden rejected their entreaties in fear of provoking Russia — giving Putin a major victory. It’s the same flawed reasoning that has led Biden to withhold critical weapons Ukraine needs to retake its territory.

2. He continued to slow-roll weapons to Ukraine. After resisting for nearly year, Biden finally agreed in January to provide Ukrainian forces with M1A1 Abrams tanks, but the first tanks did not arrive until September. After 19 months of Ukrainian pleading, Biden provided Kyiv with Army Tactical Missile System (ATACMS) in October — but the United States supplied only a few medium-range missiles, which travel 100 miles, instead of longer-range missiles that have a 190-mile range. And after denying Ukraine’s entreaties for F-16 fighters for more than a year, Biden reversed course in May — but U.S. training delays prevented their deployment. He has provided Kyiv with just three Patriot air-defense systems, leaving Ukrainian troops, schools, homes, hospitals and critical infrastructure exposed. Biden’s delays have undermined Ukraine’s counteroffensive, prolonged the war and weakened support in Congress for military aid to Ukraine.


1. He announced he is running for reelection. Biden is the most unpopular president since the end of World War II. Monmouth polling in October found 76 percent say he is too old to serve another term; CNN polling in August found that 67 percent of Democrats want someone else to be their party’s nominee. Yet Biden is running, forcing a Biden-Trump rematch that most Americans say they don’t want — and making a second Trump term more likely.

This list barely scratches the surface, so, as I do each year, here are some dishonorable mentions: Biden canceled the seven remaining oil and gas leases in Alaska’s Arctic National Wildlife Refuge; he transferred $6 billion in frozen oil funds to Iran as a ransom for five American hostages; he announced the most draconian restrictions on auto emissions ever to try to force Americans to transition to electric vehicles; he nominated judges who could not answer basic questions about the Constitution; and he embraced “Bidenomics” even though only 14 percent say they have been helped by Biden’s economic policies.

Year 3 was a disaster. I tremble to think what 2024 will bring.

Opinion The 10 worst things President Biden did in 2023

Oh you mean a staffer for George Bush doesn't like Biden? You mean a guy who wrote books like: "Courting Disaster: How the C.I.A. Kept America Safe and How Barack Obama Is Inviting the Next Attack" ???

This country has already rejected Trump once. His man baby act hasn't convinced anyone on the fence to come back and vote for him. Guy is such a loser victim and needs to surround himself with a bunch of people who feed him bullshit just so he can prop up his fragile ego. Can't admit that he lost the election. Thinks he won by millions of votes. Doesn't live in reality... is the thing dictators are made of.

I'm not in love with Biden, but this country isn't going anywhere drastically bad w. him as president. He's a status quo president. And as far as I'm aware he's got a bevy of adults around him who will keep the country moving. So long as Trump is president anyone under 40 or poor is screwed. So long as Trump is president the foundation America was built on is at risk as his cronies enable his ego to grow even larger than it currently is.

Policy wise, maybe just one time conservatives can give young people a reason to vote for them. But sure, lets elect him again. It was so awesome getting $2,000 back from my tax return while millionaires used their tax savings to buy their 5th mansions. The American Dream is dead for anyone under 40 who isn't in tech, finance, or a doctor because the rules are so stacked against them.

Biden has extended the first olive branch to young people EVER with the student loan relief. And how does it impact you? As far as I know you still live in a large house worth millions near the water in Boston and can afford to house multiple people free of charge at a place in Arizona for Spring Training. Who is paying for the massive tax cuts the wealthy got? They certainly never pay it forward.

Try making low six figures in 2024 w. 6-figure debt getting rejected for rambler homes in the Seattle area that are listed for $1.4 million and being sold at $1.8. Try spending $3,000 a month for a 550 square foot apartment in Ballard w. local property being sold at max value and no chance to grow your net worth cause you're renting and any purchase will almost surely depreciate. Most young people can never envision a time where they can even purchase a home because they're so drowning in debt and can't get jobs that pay well enough to be competitive b/c greedy CEO's want to milk them for cheap labor... and Trump wont do a thing to help them. Instead, he, and conservatives alike, mock them and tell them to grow up while they made their money on cheap real estate and borderline free education... ya, that's a winning ticket.

And conservatives are mad that young people don't want to have families... with what fkn money? with what vision for the future? At least Biden is offering them SOMETHING.

[D-train]

Complaining about the Cost of living in one of the Bluest cities in the country and blaming it on Trump who is not in office and saying Biden is fine because he is a status quo POTUS is something else. lol What happened drastically bad from 2017-2020 and what will happen drastically bad from 2025-2028 if Trump is elected. Are you listening to the ladies on The View and Rachel Maddow warning us of him ending democracy and becoming a dictator. lol

Screenshot 2024-02-27 6.45.00 AM.png (84.4 KiB) Viewed 212 times

[D-train]

btw I can afford that stuff because I am almost 57 years old and have been working for 40 years since I started working at a butter factory for $5.50 an hour 3 days after I graduated High school. My first job AFTER graduating from the UW was as a bank teller making $6.20 an hour. So perhaps I earned it.

[Seattle or Bust]

btw I can afford that stuff because I am almost 57 years old and have been working for 40 years since I started working at a butter factory for $5.50 an hour 3 days after I graduated High school. My first job AFTER graduating from the UW was as a bank teller making $6.20 an hour. So perhaps I earned it.

Re your graphic: you are aware there was a worldwide pandemic that caused worldwide inflation as governments needed to print money to keep people afloat right? the same pandemic that Trump fumbled horribly due to inactivity and pretending it was all fake... perhaps some inflation might have been avoided if he had acted on it sooner and not acted like a giant man baby who thought Pelosi and the Dems were propping up the pandemic to hurt his fragile ego.

You graduated college in the early 90's. A home in Sammamish sold for somewhere in the ballpark of $250-300K during that time. The same homes now sell for $1.2-1.5 million while wages have effectively decreased by half in their spending power. In 1997 the avg tuition at UW was $3,500 a year. In 2016 the avg tuition was $35,000. How on earth is that fair? You at least had a chance to build a nice life for yourself. And I'm not denying that you worked hard... the point is that young people are working just has hard and have 0 hope unless they're part of a very small % of people in particular working classes.

In 1993 the avg cost of a studio apt in Seattle was $450... at $6.20 an hour you made $950 a month while the spending power of your dollar was double of that today. Today the avg cost of a studio apt in Seattle is $1,500 while a teller making minimum wage makes $2,600 a month with half the spending power. There's also far less opportunity for growth in companies today and you can't do it unless you have a bachelors degree.

If someone had any money in 2008, they were able to purchase multiple foreclosed homes from 2008-2012 and resell those home for double or triple their value just 5 years later. Boomers crashed the economy and then bought up all the real estate which is why the housing market is where it's at now. They're hoarding homes to live lavish retirements and renting them out to all the tech families who inflate the market due Microsoft/Amazon/Google consistently rotating entire fleets of workers under contract from foreign countries.

Can you point me to a place that isn't a shithole to live and it's affordable to rent/purchase? It's not just blue cities. These places don't actually exist. Certainly not where half-decent jobs are.

You pointed out in your post how angry you are that Biden is forgiving student debt. To me, he's doing something that is actually needed so young people and the poor can actually have a chance. Trump gave immense tax cuts to the rich who don't need it. What I'm saying is at least Biden is trying to give young people a break. Trump could care fucking less. A $3,000 tax break on a $70k salary means so much less than say reducing your student loan bill by 70%. You call student depth relief a way to steal votes... what do you call massive tax breaks for older people?

I don't blame Trump for the problems with the economy. The fault is a long-term scheme by the rich to create crippling wealth inequality and the politicians who have helped them. Problem is... one guy is extending an olive branch to those on the losing end of this game while the other gave massive tax breaks to the swamp he says he's trying to eliminate.

I'm glad Trump had enough adults around him that he didn't get what he wanted from 2016-2020. I'm not convinced that will happen again. Psychos like Guliani and Lake certainly tried. I remember a number of months ago that you really wanted Desantis to be president... now you're very much on the Trump train. Dang.

[bpj]

It's funny to watch libs cry about soaring costs while they applaud canceling student debt and sending billions to foreign countries in "aid".

Those are all contributing factors to the devaluing of the dollar.

It's not just that "prices go up".

It's that they're devaluing the dollar, decreasing your purchasing power.

And the libs just eat it up.

I assume that's what dtrain means about buying votes. He's lowering your student debt, but it's at the expense of having that debt burden spread across the tax base.

They print more dollars, and the dollars you have buy less and less.

Trump isn't blameless in all of it of course. He should have completely ignored the fake "pandemic" and treated it like the flu that it was. But he had the dumbasses in his ear that the libs call "the grown ups".

Lol. Dumbass libs.

[Seattle or Bust]

It's funny to watch libs cry about soaring costs while they applaud canceling student debt and sending billions to foreign countries in "aid".

Those are all contributing factors to the devaluing of the dollar.

It's not just that "prices go up".

It's that they're devaluing the dollar, decreasing your purchasing power.

And the libs just eat it up.

I assume that's what dtrain means about buying votes. He's lowering your student debt, but it's at the expense of having that debt burden spread across the tax base.

They print more dollars, and the dollars you have buy less and less.

Trump isn't blameless in all of it of course. He should have completely ignored the fake "pandemic" and treated it like the flu that it was. But he had the dumbasses in his ear that the libs call "the grown ups".

Lol. Dumbass libs.

What do you call massive tax cuts for the rich? That also comes at the expense of having the debt burden spread across the tax base... except that it effects young and poor people far worse.

You don't think he's trying to win the influence of the older voting class who enjoys the tax breaks on their retirement dollars? From what I can tell, this forum has an avg age of like 50-70... I totally get why you would love Trump. He put a lot of money in your pockets.

I agree, I wish we would stay out of wars. I wish we would focus on the US and use money to help people dig themselves out of poverty. Problem is Conservatives cry foul here too and say people shouldn't be taking hand outs. So even if aid money was used to help the unfortunate, it would be seen as a handout that "our tax dollars shouldn't be paying for."

Meanwhile nobody questions tax cuts for the rich... it's crazy to me.

[bpj]

It's funny to watch libs cry about soaring costs while they applaud canceling student debt and sending billions to foreign countries in "aid".

Those are all contributing factors to the devaluing of the dollar.

It's not just that "prices go up".

It's that they're devaluing the dollar, decreasing your purchasing power.

And the libs just eat it up.

I assume that's what dtrain means about buying votes. He's lowering your student debt, but it's at the expense of having that debt burden spread across the tax base.

They print more dollars, and the dollars you have buy less and less.

Trump isn't blameless in all of it of course. He should have completely ignored the fake "pandemic" and treated it like the flu that it was. But he had the dumbasses in his ear that the libs call "the grown ups".

Lol. Dumbass libs.

What do you call massive tax cuts for the rich? That also comes at the expense of having the debt burden spread across the tax base... except that it effects young and poor people far worse.

You don't think he's trying to win the influence of the older voting class who enjoys the tax breaks on their retirement dollars? From what I can tell, this forum has an avg age of like 50-70... I totally get why you would love Trump. He put a lot of money in your pockets.

I agree, I wish we would stay out of wars. I wish we would focus on the US and use money to help people dig themselves out of poverty. Problem is Conservatives cry foul here too and say people shouldn't be taking hand outs. So even if aid money was used to help the unfortunate, it would be seen as a handout that "our tax dollars shouldn't be paying for."

Meanwhile nobody questions tax cuts for the rich... it's crazy to me.

Rich people, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, make a much larger contribution to taxes than anybody else, even if their "profits" don't get raped by the government.

They do it by job creation. Every employee they have contributes taxes, including a share of payroll taxes that employers must contribute over the base salary they pay an employee. An employee that gets paid $20 an hour costs an employer ~$25 an hour after the payroll taxes are added on.

Profits are incentive to continue growing the business domestically instead of shipping jobs overseas. Take away their profits, they'll just move jobs overseas or move them to a different location that won't treat them like a negative.

No, I don't think Trumps tax cuts affected the majority of people who rely on their retirement accounts in a posotive or negative way. They encourage business to be done domestically and create jobs, creating more tax revenue.

[Seattle or Bust]

It's funny to watch libs cry about soaring costs while they applaud canceling student debt and sending billions to foreign countries in "aid".

Those are all contributing factors to the devaluing of the dollar.

It's not just that "prices go up".

It's that they're devaluing the dollar, decreasing your purchasing power.

And the libs just eat it up.

I assume that's what dtrain means about buying votes. He's lowering your student debt, but it's at the expense of having that debt burden spread across the tax base.

They print more dollars, and the dollars you have buy less and less.

Trump isn't blameless in all of it of course. He should have completely ignored the fake "pandemic" and treated it like the flu that it was. But he had the dumbasses in his ear that the libs call "the grown ups".

Lol. Dumbass libs.

What do you call massive tax cuts for the rich? That also comes at the expense of having the debt burden spread across the tax base... except that it effects young and poor people far worse.

You don't think he's trying to win the influence of the older voting class who enjoys the tax breaks on their retirement dollars? From what I can tell, this forum has an avg age of like 50-70... I totally get why you would love Trump. He put a lot of money in your pockets.

I agree, I wish we would stay out of wars. I wish we would focus on the US and use money to help people dig themselves out of poverty. Problem is Conservatives cry foul here too and say people shouldn't be taking hand outs. So even if aid money was used to help the unfortunate, it would be seen as a handout that "our tax dollars shouldn't be paying for."

Meanwhile nobody questions tax cuts for the rich... it's crazy to me.

Rich people, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, make a much larger contribution to taxes than anybody else, even if their "profits" don't get raped by the government.

They do it by job creation.

Profits are incentive to continue growing the business domestically instead of shipping jobs overseas. Take away their profits, they'll just move jobs overseas or move them to a different location that won't treat them like a negative.

No, I don't think Trumps tax cuts affected the majority of people who rely on their retirement accounts in a posotive or negative way. They encourage business to be done domestically and create jobs, creating more tax revenue.

Yet there's massive wealth inequality in this country and the jobs created aren't paying enough for people to enjoy a comfortable living or pursue the American Dream that generations before them were privy to.

There's a disconnect here and I happen to believe it's because a very small % of people are extremely rich and a large % of people are very poor. It's disproportionate and trickle down economics aren't trickling down enough for the country to be prosperous as a whole.

I don't get why an individual has to be worth $10 billion while the avg american is living paycheck to paycheck. To me that's the larger issue.

[bpj]

What do you call massive tax cuts for the rich? That also comes at the expense of having the debt burden spread across the tax base... except that it effects young and poor people far worse.

You don't think he's trying to win the influence of the older voting class who enjoys the tax breaks on their retirement dollars? From what I can tell, this forum has an avg age of like 50-70... I totally get why you would love Trump. He put a lot of money in your pockets.

I agree, I wish we would stay out of wars. I wish we would focus on the US and use money to help people dig themselves out of poverty. Problem is Conservatives cry foul here too and say people shouldn't be taking hand outs. So even if aid money was used to help the unfortunate, it would be seen as a handout that "our tax dollars shouldn't be paying for."

Meanwhile nobody questions tax cuts for the rich... it's crazy to me.

Rich people, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, make a much larger contribution to taxes than anybody else, even if their "profits" don't get raped by the government.

They do it by job creation.

Profits are incentive to continue growing the business domestically instead of shipping jobs overseas. Take away their profits, they'll just move jobs overseas or move them to a different location that won't treat them like a negative.

No, I don't think Trumps tax cuts affected the majority of people who rely on their retirement accounts in a posotive or negative way. They encourage business to be done domestically and create jobs, creating more tax revenue.

Yet there's massive wealth inequality in this country and the jobs created aren't paying enough for people to enjoy a comfortable living or pursue the American Dream that generations before them were privy to.

There's a disconnect here and I happen to believe it's because a very small % of people are extremely rich and a large % of people are very poor. It's disproportionate and trickle down economics aren't trickling down enough for the country to be prosperous as a whole.

I don't get why an individual has to be worth $10 billion while the avg american is living paycheck to paycheck. To me that's the larger issue.

Yeah, you hate capitalism, we get it.

[Seattle or Bust]

Rich people, like Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos, Bill Gates, make a much larger contribution to taxes than anybody else, even if their "profits" don't get raped by the government.

They do it by job creation.

Profits are incentive to continue growing the business domestically instead of shipping jobs overseas. Take away their profits, they'll just move jobs overseas or move them to a different location that won't treat them like a negative.

No, I don't think Trumps tax cuts affected the majority of people who rely on their retirement accounts in a posotive or negative way. They encourage business to be done domestically and create jobs, creating more tax revenue.

Yet there's massive wealth inequality in this country and the jobs created aren't paying enough for people to enjoy a comfortable living or pursue the American Dream that generations before them were privy to.

There's a disconnect here and I happen to believe it's because a very small % of people are extremely rich and a large % of people are very poor. It's disproportionate and trickle down economics aren't trickling down enough for the country to be prosperous as a whole.

I don't get why an individual has to be worth $10 billion while the avg american is living paycheck to paycheck. To me that's the larger issue.

Yeah, you hate capitalism, we get it.

To me, that's not capitalism.

Capitalism existed in the early 90's where things were far more equal. What we have today is an aristocracy that legislate to help the rich. Democrats included.