I haven't read through the thread but the Republicans saving grace is mostly going to be an unserious opposition.
It is today an out of touch party who is making the same "let them eat cake" mistake the Democrats did while Biden was compounding the first round of Trump inflation by throwing more gas on the fire. The recent $20 burrito kerfluffle indicates that they are out of touch with their voters. They didn't deliver on their promises, their Presodent blundered into a war that he didn't really have the stomach to prosecute. They have no legislative victories to point to, no major governing wins. The party talking heads have fractured around inanities and the guy at the top is a vacuum sucking the air out of everything. One of there current main candidates in 2028, the VP, is advocating getting the dollar dumped as the reserve currency while his benefactor has fled to Argentina while his AI products are being hooked up all throughout the government. Their rich benefactors are solidly against the curtailing of immigration in any form because cheap labor is good for business, while bad for social cohesion, something rich people are insulated against, well, until it is so bad the guillotines are out and by then it is too late (and they are too stupid to see the warning signs of that already).
I would say that the outlook for the party is bleak, but their opponents are Democrats so we'll have another nearly 50/50 split where nobody can do much of anything and so we will just coast on autopilot ever closer to the cliff. I am a pessimist on what is in store for this country the rest of my life. Something bad is coming and nothing likely changes from any of us until it does because everyone is too comfortable to truly rock the boat even though the boat desperately needs rocking.
Regarding your last bit, I think a lot of people held that kind of opinion pre-Trump, and there were smart people saying it was time for a shakeup.
Trump's kind of shake up seems to have done very little to push us back in the "right" direction (other than illegal immigration and his court appointments--those are huge wins for him). I've heard some people say "be careful what you wish for" w/r/t to that, and others say "he was sui generis bad, but we still need that shake up from an outsider." I'd say that what we have at this point is a structural problem with incentives--what it takes to get elected automatically blocks those who could offer real policies that would help in the long term.
We need to turn off the constant bickering about social stuff. We had settled into a bit of a detente on that it felt like in the early 2000's and then everything went off a cliff. I think that involves dumping some of the extreme positions on each side (for example, if I was an LG or B, I would want to jettison every letter after those 3 because that has actually had opinions on the first 3 moving backwards). I am biased to conservative opinions so it is harder for me to pick out the extreme on that side.
We don't need an outsider, we need competence and pragmatism. We need Congress to reassert its authority collectively in the face of ever more authoritarian executives. We need Congress to do its number 1 duty and actually pass a budget instead of forever CRs and we need our political class to get real about our spending. You have to reform Social Security and Medicare/Medicaid or you have to raise more revenue. All of this nonsense that MAGA has about cutting things like foreign aid is insignificant. Our economic hardships are directly related to dollar printing going into overdrive during COVID mixed with an already fairly large debt. What appears to be the answer now is inflating our way out of the debt and that is really starting to put the squeeze to the middle class, particularly its younger members.
Our leaders are more interested in dropping sick burns on X though.
Ossoff can deliver a despicable cheap shot and the love grows stronger.
Are you talking about mentioning Natalie Harp?
The New York Times reported about her first and what they had to say was 100x more cringe. The NYT got copies of notes she wrote for Trump.
Direct quotes
"You are all that matters to me"
"You are the alpha and the omega, the be all and end all. What would I be without you?"
"I don't ever want to let you down"
"I want to bring you joy, to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk 'work'"
"I want to get back to that synergy, where we can talk about everything and nothing"
"No one knows or cares about me more. Thank you for always being there for me.. it is I who am unworthy. With all my heart, Natalie"
Yes. It's a cheap shot, irrelevant to the problems facing the country that he can fix in 2028.
Ask yourself: WWJBD?
Disagree. It’s good he (a sitting US Senator and member of the Select Committee on Intelligence) shined a bright light on this.
Harp is a taxpayer-funded federal employee. She’s hardly exempt from scrutiny or criticism. She is extremely close to the president, and multiple outlets have reported that others in Trump’s circle have expressed concern about her access to him. She worked closely with Trump and other national security personnel (a national security official expressed concern that “Harp’s unusually close proximity to Trump provided her access to more sensitive information than anyone else in the president’s orbit”) for over a year without a security clearance. In fact, she failed for many months to even apply for the clearance and didn’t do so until Trump got involved.
Harp’s relationship with Trump is beyond bizarre. First, the letters which read like love letters and suggest (and I’m being kind here) that she’s unstable. There’s also the jumping into a trunk incident, so that she could be with Trump in court. And sprinting after him as he played his golf course, with a cart, in Scotland. And the apology for “embarrassing” him on the course: “I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep and only catching a couple hours at a time).”
She’s a prime source of the information he receives. She has described herself, in one of the letters, as his “Human Printer.” She has log-in credentials for his Truth Social account, she feeds him memes and other content, and she’s reported to have been responsible for the Obamas-as-apes content. She’s a gatekeeper for Trump and has even exchanged texts with world leaders trying to reach him. Who knows what Trump, known to be somewhat loosey-goosey with national security, has shared with her. Again, she had this kind of access even prior to a clearance.
Harp maintains a constant presence inside the Oval Office, travels on Air Force One, Marine One and Secret Plane out of Ankara One, and has handled communications and social media access without traditional national security filtering.
It’s hardly a stretch to argue that she’s a security threat, and this relationship has now received the attention it deserves.
Ossoff can deliver a despicable cheap shot and the love grows stronger.
Are you talking about mentioning Natalie Harp?
The New York Times reported about her first and what they had to say was 100x more cringe. The NYT got copies of notes she wrote for Trump.
Direct quotes
"You are all that matters to me"
"You are the alpha and the omega, the be all and end all. What would I be without you?"
"I don't ever want to let you down"
"I want to bring you joy, to feel like we can get through a day without ever having to talk 'work'"
"I want to get back to that synergy, where we can talk about everything and nothing"
"No one knows or cares about me more. Thank you for always being there for me.. it is I who am unworthy. With all my heart, Natalie"
Yes. It's a cheap shot, irrelevant to the problems facing the country that he can fix in 2028.
Ask yourself: WWJBD?
Disagree. It’s good he (a sitting US Senator and member of the Select Committee on Intelligence) shined a bright light on this.
Harp is a taxpayer-funded federal employee. She’s hardly exempt from scrutiny or criticism. She is extremely close to the president, and multiple outlets have reported that others in Trump’s circle have expressed concern about her access to him. She worked closely with Trump and other national security personnel (a national security official expressed concern that “Harp’s unusually close proximity to Trump provided her access to more sensitive information than anyone else in the president’s orbit”) for over a year without a security clearance. In fact, she failed for many months to even apply for the clearance and didn’t do so until Trump got involved.
Harp’s relationship with Trump is beyond bizarre. First, the letters which read like love letters and suggest (and I’m being kind here) that she’s unstable. There’s also the jumping into a trunk incident, so that she could be with Trump in court. And sprinting after him as he played his golf course, with a cart, in Scotland. And the apology for “embarrassing” him on the course: “I want things to always be right between us. I also know I’ve been distracted all week (forgetting to eat throughout the days, and even forgetting to sleep and only catching a couple hours at a time).”
She’s a prime source of the information he receives. She has described herself, in one of the letters, as his “Human Printer.” She has log-in credentials for his Truth Social account, she feeds him memes and other content, and she’s reported to have been responsible for the Obamas-as-apes content. She’s a gatekeeper for Trump and has even exchanged texts with world leaders trying to reach him. Who knows what Trump, known to be somewhat loosey-goosey with national security, has shared with her. Again, she had this kind of access even prior to a clearance.
Harp maintains a constant presence inside the Oval Office, travels on Air Force One, Marine One and Secret Plane out of Ankara One, and has handled communications and social media access without traditional national security filtering.
It’s hardly a stretch to argue that she’s a security threat, and this relationship has now received the attention it deserves.
If I were to create a Wiki for “unhealthy obsession” , this would be the defining descriptor.
Divorce BEFORE you make any money! Do it quickly, do it often!
