Politics

[PARA45]

The problem with Trump getting the nomination is that those in the middle will not vote for him. Also, those conservatives who do not like Trump, will not vote period. Meanwhile, the liberals will vote for a monkey if the monkey gets the nomination. I hope our voters have enough common sense to vote smartly, but I doubt it will happen. Look where our country is now.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

A monkey? Come on Oscar... Don't get my hopes up that the Dems start nominating better candidates...

 

[WAB]

I think many republicans feel as I do, they will not vote for Trump in the primary, but should he get the nomination, they will reluctantly vote for him in the general.

 

[Zambezi]

Trump was a catalyst, much like yeast is in making beer. But you don't keep reusing the same yeast.
He showed how it was to be done and how to do it, it is time to pass that on to the next who will carry the flag. I would say (as I am a mind reader ) that if the GOP field a candidate with Trump's policies, his independence from special interests, and his "put America and common sense first" attitude then that candidate would probably receive around 70% of the vote. BUT if you put Trump in you'll receive less than 50%... Why? Because Trump is his own worst enemy and many hate him for being himself. Like it or not that is simple fact. So why would the GOP throw away more than 20% of the vote when they could field a Trump-like candidate instead of Trump.

By all means admire the man for what he did, who he is as a President and what he tried to do for America but also never forget how paralysed the USA was for 4 years as the Left, the RINOS, the media, the judiciary and everyone else forgot to do their jobs and merely tried to impeach Trump. Do you really want another 4 more years of that? Can the USA survive another 4 more years of that?

Vote in a palatable Trump-like candidate and regain power or...
Try and vote in Trump and watch the Dems walk into another 4 more years of power...
Then again Trump might just actually win but you're going to have another 4 years of paralysis, riots, chaos, lies and division.

Choice is your America.

 

[Zambezi]

The problem with Trump getting the nomination is that those in the middle will not vote for him. Also, those conservatives who do not like Trump, will not vote period. Meanwhile, the liberals will vote for a monkey if the monkey gets the nomination. I hope our voters have enough common sense to vote smartly, but I doubt it will happen. Look where our country is now.

Agreed. This is the truth of the matter.

Republicans can't win if even 5-10% of them don't vote because of Trump being the nominee.
You also have the RINOs who will not vote for Trump. There goes another 5-10%.
Furthermore, any undecided GOP/DEM/Independent/Libertarian/etc will not vote for Trump.
So totalling that all up, there goes 10-20% of the vote right there.
Now maybe that 10-20% not only doesn't vote but maybe they actually vote AGAINST Trump by casting for the DEMS... that makes it a 20-40% swing for the Dems.

This god-like hero worship is going to cost the Republicans if he runs again.

 

[CoElkHunter]

Trump was a catalyst, much like yeast is in making beer. But you don't keep reusing the same yeast.
He showed how it was to be done and how to do it, it is time to pass that on to the next who will carry the flag. I would say (as I am a mind reader ) that if the GOP field a candidate with Trump's policies, his independence from special interests, and his "put America and common sense first" attitude then that candidate would probably receive around 70% of the vote. BUT if you put Trump in you'll receive less than 50%... Why? Because Trump is his own worst enemy and many hate him for being himself. Like it or not that is simple fact. So why would the GOP throw away more than 20% of the vote when they could field a Trump-like candidate instead of Trump.

By all means admire the man for what he did, who he is as a President and what he tried to do for America but also never forget how paralysed the USA was for 4 years as the Left, the RINOS, the media the judiciary and everyone else forgot to do their jobs and merely tried to impeach Trump. Do you really want another 4 more years of that? Can the USA survive another 4 more years of that?

Vote in a palatable Trump-like candidate and regain power or...
Try and vote in Trump and watch the Dems walk into another 4 more years of power...
Then again Trump might just actually win but you're going to have another 4 years of paralysis, riots, chaos, lies and division.

Choice is your America.

As much as I and other conservative minded voters liked MOST of Trump's policies, he can no longer "win" the moderate Independent voters. Those are the voters who have and WILL decide future Presidential and Congressional races. If he WERE to be the GOP Presidential candidate in 2024, I personally would vote for him over the imbecile Brandon or any other Demonrat candidate, but the hundreds of thousands of moderate Independent voters won't. We'll be fortunate to survive another almost two years of Brandon, but we'll never survive another four years if he or another fool like him is elected.

 

[mdwest]

I think many republicans feel as I do, they will not vote for Trump in the primary, but should he get the nomination, they will reluctantly vote for him in the general.

My greater concern is that he wont run on the R ticket, and will instead throw his hat in the ring as an independent (Ala Ross Perot)...

He is a lot of things.. but stupid isnt one of them.. he knows the chance of him getting the R nomination is extremely limited.. and If he doesnt know how to do anything else, he knows negotiations and deal making exceptionally well (albeit heavy handed negotiations and deal making)... He knows that becoming the R candidate in the next election cycle is a deal that has a very limited chance at success and that the price to even begin negotiations would be insanely high..

The better chance at success (which still doesnt get him into the white house.. but I am not sure his ego will allow him to be convinced of this) is to run as a far right conservative independent..

If he does that, he will indeed peel off a % of R votes that would have voted for the R candidate had Trump not been an option.. and that % will put a death nail in the R 2024 election.. Biden will easily win another term..

 

[Alistair]

Trump was a catalyst, much like yeast is in making beer. But you don't keep reusing the same yeast.

Not to distract from your points, but actually, a lot of breweries do keep using the same yeast.

Marston's, whom I used to work with in the UK has been serially re-pitching the same strain from one fermenter to the next to make Bass since the mid-1800s, something they're quite proud of.

Many of the breweries of central Europe, especially those using cerevisiae strains, had been cropping off open FVs and repitching continuously for literally hundreds of years in some cases until the Nazi's stole all their kettles for the war effort and shut 'em down.

Most of the big lager breweries re-pitch the same yeast 5-10 times before you start getting stress induced mutations and you have to propogate some fresh stuff. Some of the smaller craft guys can't afford to do the sequencing work to really know what mutations have occurred and pitch the same stuff till they get stuck ferments, petites or weird off-flavors, which can be lots and lots of generations.

Anyhow, that diversion finished, back to politics...

 

[Zambezi]

Not to distract from your points, but actually, a lot of breweries do keep using the same yeast.

Marston's, whom I used to work with in the UK has been serially re-pitching the same strain from one fermenter to the next to make Bass since the mid-1800s, something they're quite proud of.

Many of the breweries of central Europe, especially those using cerevisiae strains, had been cropping off open FVs and repitching continuously for literally hundreds of years in some cases until the Nazi's stole all their kettles for the war effort and shut 'em down.

Most of the big lager breweries re-pitch the same yeast 5-10 times before you start getting stress induced mutations and you have to propogate some fresh stuff. Some of the smaller craft guys can't afford to do the sequencing work to really know what mutations have occurred and pitch the same stuff till they get stuck ferments, petites or weird off-flavors, which can be lots and lots of generations.

Anyhow, that diversion finished, back to politics...

Dammit! Now the "Trump for life" people are going to latch on to this!

 

[Alistair]

Dammit! Now the "Trump for life" people are going to latch on to this!

I dunno. I'm getting some serious off flavors from his product these days, and he doesn't seem to ferment support with the same vigor he once did.

Time to propogate up a new batch, I reckon...

 

[CoElkHunter]

I dunno. I'm getting some serious off flavors from his product these days, and he doesn't seem to ferment support with the same vigor he once did.

Time to propogate up a new batch, I reckon...

And turn the old batch into Vegemite and send it to Townsend @Bob Nelson 35Whelen in OZ! LOL

 

[Zambezi]

My greater concern is that he wont run on the R ticket, and will instead throw his hat in the ring as an independent (Ala Ross Perot)...

He is a lot of things.. but stupid isnt one of them.. he knows the chance of him getting the R nomination is extremely limited.. and If he doesnt know how to do anything else, he knows negotiations and deal making exceptionally well (albeit heavy handed negotiations and deal making)... He knows that becoming the R candidate in the next election cycle is a deal that has a very limited chance at success and that the price to even begin negotiations would be insanely high..

The better chance at success (which still doesnt get him into the white house.. but I am not sure his ego will allow him to be convinced of this) is to run as a far right conservative independent..

If he does that, he will indeed peel off a % of R votes that would have voted for the R candidate had Trump not been an option.. and that % will put a death nail in the R 2024 election.. Biden will easily win another term..

That is a very scary thought Dave. Very scary. Unfortunately it could become a reality.

 

[Alistair]

And turn the old batch into Vegemite and send it to Townsend @Bob Nelson 35Whelen in OZ! LOL

I expect if Trump doesn't make it through the primary he'll be sufficiently bitter and salty to pass muster there...

 

[CoElkHunter]

I expect if Trump doesn't make it through the primary he'll be sufficiently bitter and salty to pass muster there...

Well, I actually meant the old beer making tailings (malt, yeast or whatever?) they make Vegemite out of? But Trump could sign the container the Vegemite is packaged in? LOL

 

[Tam Dl]

Who thinks Trump won't make it through the primaries? He has hugely more support that Desantis, who among other things is not a good debater, doesn't have a personality, and has a curiously "deep" CV.

I don't see how he wins. But he is said to be studying all the "tools", like ballot harvesting. If he couldn't beat Biden... Biden is the moderate end of the Dems, so people who want more of the same, but not much more, don't have a lot of room on the Dem side.

 

[Tundra Tiger]

"Desantis, who among other things is not a good debater, doesn't have a personality..."

I guess I need to watch more; that has not been my perception of him at all. Throw in "personal restraint" and the optics look pretty darned good to me.

 

[Dragan N.]

I think we can look at Afghanistan through a different aperture other than failure or success. Generally speaking no one wakes up and deliberately makes a bad decision in regards to our national security. If everyone recalls during the Trump presidency there was a push to achieve a negotiated settlement between the US, Afghan Government, and the Taliban. In Doha and Pakistan meetings took place and a "conditions based" glide path was set. The US and our allies had done a great job but Afghan problems can only be solved with Afghan solutions. If all went well, the US and its allies withdrawal, peace is achieved between the Taliban and Afghanistan that included their integration into the legitimate government. While all this was happening there is the ISIS fight in Eastern Afghanistan which was spreading. The Taliban do not wish to conduct operations external to their country but ISIS does. ISIS is our priority. If we yanked out all lethal aid the Afghans would be hampered in the ISIS fight. So what do we do? Do we stay 20 more years? Or did we as a nation hope peace would be achieved and together the combined government would contain ISIS. The Taliban do not like ISIS. I feel there was no right answer and it did turn out pretty bad. It could have been worse. Hopefully the Taliban use our military equipment to contain ISIS. That would be a win.

I think its very important to look at Afghanistan through the lens of success or failure because this is a conflict that has cost 2.3 TRILLION dollars: https://watson.brown.edu/costsofwar...etary-costs-date-us-war-afghanistan-2001-2022

It has resulted in the Taliban not only returning to power but also expanding their control over Afghanistan. The 15% of Afghanistan that was held by the Northern Alliance pre-9/11 is now more or less under Taliban control.

I do not know if anyone makes a deliberately bad choice regarding national security but the way that the withdrawal from Afghanistan happened defies logic. Not only did it take place during the Afghan fighting season but it also resulted in large amounts of equipment getting left behind. The whole withdrawal also appeared rather rushed and chaotic.

This is slightly off topic, but another foreign policy decision that is mind boggling is the decision to invade Iraq. Hussein was a little splinter in America's pinky finger. However if you were an Islamic nutcase who even dreamed of forming an organization like ISIS in Saddam's Iraq you would wind up 6 feet under. Not to mention that Saddam's Iraq represented a pretty serious threat to Iran... So trillions of dollars later you now have an Iraq that's Shiite run and far friendlier to Iran than Saddam ever was and further this country is also now a rather fertile breeding ground for militant Islamists...

While NATO troops were in Afghanistan the Taliban and coalition forces where in a stalmate. With NATO in the country the Taliban could not sieze control of the country. But at the same time coalition forces where unable to defeat the Taliban insurgency. Once NATO forces left Afghanistan it was rather obvious that the balance of power would shift in the Taliban's favor. So them wanting to engage in a power sharing agreement, in good faith, really does not make any sense. Why engage in a power sharing agreement when you are the side that has the upper hand??

The Taliban may not have aims that extend beyond their borders, but they never really did. The problem with them is that they are a bunch of Islamic nutcases who are presiding over a country that was always on the verge of being a failed state. These conditions created and probably will continue to create fertile breeding grounds for all sorts of Islamic terrorist movements.

But getting to the question of the equipment. First of all most of the equipment that NATO left behind will probably turn into fancy desert ornaments. For instance, I doubt the Taliban have the know how to operate the western aircraft that were left behind. However they certainly do not have the technical know how or the requisite supply chains to maintain and service this aircraft. So in a few years they will probably be inoperable. However, I am sure China is interested in getting their hands on a few of these aircraft and examining them and even maybe copying or reverse engineering them. Given that the Taliban are eager to establish relations with other countries, I do not think that it is far fetched to think that at least some of this tech will fall into Chinese or say Iranian hands...

There are already reports that some of this equipment has shown up in Kashmir and in other parts of Pakistan...

 

[CoElkHunter]

"Desantis, who among other things is not a good debater, doesn't have a personality..."

I guess I need to watch more; that has not been my perception of him at all. Throw in "personal restraint" and the optics look pretty darned good to me.

Yep, and unlike Brandon who needs a teleprompter to form a complete sentence, DeSantis could be almost asleep and beat Brandon in a debate. LOL

 

[Boyd Brooks]

 

[Red Leg]

Who thinks Trump won't make it through the primaries? He has hugely more support that Desantis, who among other things is not a good debater, doesn't have a personality, and has a curiously "deep" CV.

I don't see how he wins. But he is said to be studying all the "tools", like ballot harvesting. If he couldn't beat Biden... Biden is the moderate end of the Dems, so people who want more of the same, but not much more, don't have a lot of room on the Dem side.

I guess you and I are watching a different governor named DeSantis. Given an opportunity, I'll gladly vote for the articulate debater and MSM nemesis who won Florida by nearly 20% than the New Yorker who can't carry his own state and barely won Florida by 2.