2024 US Presidential Election Thread

[McLaren]

On a sim racing-dedicated website which in itself, is in an extreme minority niche within the gaming community - within a sub forum that’s frequented by maaaaybe 10 posters?



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Well, there would be more, but others cry "victim" just before getting banned. But hey, keep popping in and out with these posts; it's worked out great for those aforementioned. 👍

 

[Joey D]

So why don't they?

The guy just introduced Zelenskyy as bloody Putin

That's the question many of us are asking because every day, it looks more and more like Trump will take the White House.

 

[Keef]

Im not even going to watch the NATO thing. Just ****ing fall me out of a window already. I can’t do anything more than vote so y’all can figure the rest out, I don’t care.

Edit: If Axelrod is so smart then why doesn’t he run?

 

[Danoff]

On a sim racing-dedicated website which in itself, is in an extreme minority niche within the gaming community - within a sub forum that’s frequented by maaaaybe 10 posters?



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Yea. You're right. It's not intended to catch all visitors, just the regulars. And also, this is definitely the only place he's posting. So it can't be.

 

[Yard_Sale]

Yea. You're right. It's not intended to catch all visitors, just the regulars. And also, this is definitely the only place he's posting. So it can't be.

And to build off of what you said…

When I go down a google-curated political rabbit hole, I inevitably ALWAYS end up at a flight sim, plumbing, or bird watching forum.

 

[inCloud]

certainly are behaving exactly like someone who has been paid to sell propaganda

You got me, sherlock. Putin personally pay me with blood diamonds that Prigojin extracted in Africa to build half of The Crew forum here, post in food thread, FH thread, Russian invasion thread and here. But glorious witchhunter Danoff saving his fellow Biden believers from Eastern threat.

your government

I don't have any government, unconstitutional coup happened in May 2024(some say in 2012).

I don't want to say that's what you're doing, but

I am not a racist, but

 

[Tornado]

And? They becoming federal level politicians when starting presidential campaign.

Anything else, Mr. Russian Expert on the American Political Landscape?

 

[inCloud]

Anything else, Mr. Russian Expert on the American Political Landscape?

You need to collect signatures in multiple states to become candidate in ballot or win primaries in multiple states. If something happens in multiple states it automatically becomes federal. Technically, you can be candidate from only one state, but it means you have no chances to win. So yes, candidate for presidency is federal level politician. Not sure why it so hard to understand for natives.

 

[Blitz24]

You need to collect signatures in multiple states to become candidate in ballot or win primaries in multiple states. If something happens in multiple states it automatically becomes federal. Technically, you can be candidate from only one state, but it means you have no chances to win. So yes, candidate for presidency is federal level politician. Not sure why it so hard to understand for natives.

Except you don't gain federal level UNLESS you win. If Trump did not win in 2016, he still wouldn't be a politician because he only campaigned (read: asked for money for) becoming a president. If you don't win, you aren't one.

 

[Famine]

The word "Federal" specifically refers to the apparatus of the USA's national government, not just things that exist or happen in every state.

Whatever the mentally ill rapper is calling himself these days, he's neither a federal-level anything nor a politician ("expert in the affairs of people").

 

[Joey D]

You need to collect signatures in multiple states to become candidate in ballot or win primaries in multiple states. If something happens in multiple states it automatically becomes federal. Technically, you can be candidate from only one state, but it means you have no chances to win. So yes, candidate for presidency is federal level politician. Not sure why it so hard to understand for natives.

You don't. Anyone can be a candidate; that's why there's a write-in spot on the ballots. Mickey Mouse gets a ton of votes and he's a cartoon rat.

Also, this man almost always runs for president:

It's not hard for us natives to understand, it's just that you're wrong.

 

[JasonMcDonald]

Okay Biden introduced Selenskyj as Putin is it Comedy i don’t know.
As a correction he said he is so focused beating Putin nothing else matters.
Question is do I miss something are the USA (NATO) and Russia already at war is it officially now ?

 

[Joey D]

Question is do I miss something are the USA (NATO) and Russia already at war is it officially now ?

We're probably in some sort of Cold War 2.0, but unlike last time I don't think the Russkis can fight proxy wars since they can't even arm themselves appropriately. The Western powers will likely continue to arm and bankroll Russia's enemies.

 

[JasonMcDonald]

We're probably in some sort of Cold War 2.0, but unlike last time I don't think the Russkis can fight proxy wars since they can't even arm themselves appropriately. The Western powers will likely continue to arm and bankroll Russia's enemies.

Yeah should be a nice future perspective for all of us .

 

[Kriptical]

To be fair. He made no attempt to hide his origin. Nor engage in any trolly sort of behavior. And again, you guys have carried more water for Putin than he has, since the debate.

One last thing. Biden’s fine. The flubs you’ve been dwelling on, are the same ones he’s been making for 30yrs. Personally, Elizabeth Warren would have been our best pick 4yrs ago, with Sanders a good second. However, that ship has sailed, its time to straighten up and fly right. You guys spoke of responsibility, and sacrifice, for the sake of the free world…well..now its your turn to take responsibility sacrificing your personal preferences and opinions for the thing which needs to happen. That thing is going in and voting D all the way down the ballot for the sole reason of beating back trumpism and project 2025. This is very similar to the struggles against the american nazi party of a century ago. While i don’t expect the russian to know this stuff..the rest of you should.

 

[Tornado]

Not sure why it so hard to understand for natives.

Maybe because the dozen or so people who have been constant fixtures of the politics subforum on a videogame site for two decades per person (even if the "Both Sides Are Bad" guy tries to note that mockingly) actually have a clue how the federal government most of them live under that they have been regularly talking about on a message board for two decades actually works.

But yeah maybe you are the only one who has figured it out. Wow!



I do want to touch on something specifically that shows a particular amount of cluelessness with regards to how the American government works from the person trying to lecture everyone about it:

Mitch McConnell could've easily been president, but why would he want to? Presidents have term limits, people in Congress don't and you're likely not going to go backward (from presidency to Congress). You hold more power for a longer time in Congress than you do with the president. You have the ability to shape more policy decisions in Congress too.

McConnell has been winning federal elections since 1985. He's been in party leadership since 2003, and before Trump, he ran the Republican Party more or less. Had he wanted to pursue being president, he would've walked to the nomination on name recognition alone. But he's made an absolute fortune in Congress and likely didn't want to give that up. He's worth something like $40 million.

You give up normalcy for the rest of your life by being President for a maximum of 8 years, a position of intense pressure, scrutiny, and stress. From the outside, it looks like an absolutely brutal job, and the political hatcheting and bureaucracy never stops, for the rest of your life. For the most ambitious politicians, that's a pill they can swallow but again I don't think that pool is more than 10% of elected officials.

Former presidents can't drive on public roads or go anywhere alone

He's still right.

Look at McConnell, look at Kennedy. These are major Republican figures in the party at the federal level, yet they've never had an interest in making the next step b/c they're perfectly content where they are. Outside of Biden, most of our current living Presidents are not "federal level", either; they're considered liaisons. Obama was a Senator, but he was also extremely young; he only served 3 years before making the leap to the Presidency. Bush was a Governor. Clinton was a Governor. Reagan was a Governor. Carter was a Governor.

Schumer, McConnel, Reid, Frist, Dashcle, Lott...you have to go all the way back to Bob Dole in 1996 to find a US Senate Majority leader (arguably the 2nd or third most powerful elected official in the US, theoretically just one run below the President) who even ran for president.

McConnell specifically spent portions of multiple presidential terms as the most powerful person in the US government. Half of Obama's presidency was stymied by McConnell just refusing to allow Congress to do anything even when specifically asked by a person who had considered him a friend. He all but said Trump was a useful idiot to get things he wanted done. The 6-3 Supreme Court makeup of lifelong appointments was entirely his doing, he's mocked people and grandstanded over how there's nothing that can be done about it, and it will take a decade to undo that before it can even try undoing the damage it has already done and will continue to do in the meantime. McConnell will be out of government within 5 years if he even lives to the end of his current term, but he got his removal of federal abortion protections. He got his gutting of executive agencies. He's gotten his stripping back of religious protections. The past 15 years he's gotten basically everything he wanted while running essentially unopposed for speakership and his own elections, except that one time that John McCain punked him on TV and that one time that Schumer made him look foolish last year.

Why would he have wanted to be president?

 

[inCloud]

If you don't win, you aren't one.

Why? Being elected isn't only part of definition of "politician".

The word "Federal" specifically refers to the apparatus of the USA's national government, not just things that exist or happen in every state.

Even by that definition, men who participating in elections for head of USA's national government is federal politician.

Anyone can be a candidate; that's why there's a write-in spot on the ballots.

You still need to do federal level presidential campaign to win.

Why would he have wanted to be president?

Because its even more power? He would not lost any if he became president in 2016 and hold it till 2025. His electoral position isnt only source of his power, for the most part its his negotiation and strategy skills that could being used even better at presidential position.

 

[Famine]

Even by that definition, men who participating in elections for head of USA's national government is federal politician.

Not even close: they're not part of the national government apparatus until they are successfully elected, and they're not a politician until they are a politician.

Trump became the first by winning the EC count in 2016 but has arguably still never even approached the second. Jill Stein has never been the first, but by virtue of her frequent (mostly unsuccessful except at a highly local level) political campaigns is very much the second. "Ye" or whatever is neither. Biden is both, having been a senator before he was veep.

 

[Joey D]

To be fair. He made no attempt to hide his origin. Nor engage in any trolly sort of behavior. And again, you guys have carried more water for Putin than he has, since the debate.

One last thing. Biden’s fine. The flubs you’ve been dwelling on, are the same ones he’s been making for 30yrs. Personally, Elizabeth Warren would have been our best pick 4yrs ago, with Sanders a good second. However, that ship has sailed, its time to straighten up and fly right. You guys spoke of responsibility, and sacrifice, for the sake of the free world…well..now its your turn to take responsibility sacrificing your personal preferences and opinions for the thing which needs to happen. That thing is going in and voting D all the way down the ballot for the sole reason of beating back trumpism and project 2025. This is very similar to the struggles against the american nazi party of a century ago. While i don’t expect the russian to know this stuff..the rest of you should.

I don't see many people shilling for Putin outside the Russkis.

Most of us in this forum hate Trump and constantly point out how bad he is and I think many of us have accepted that we need to vote for Biden despite him being so bad that he the only candidate who could lose to Trump. What many of us are worried about is how the country will vote. Independents and undecided voters make up a majority of the voting block in the US, they could go either way come November and Biden constantly showing he's a feeble old man isn't helping. When many of us call for Biden to step aside, it's not some plot against the Democrats. It's because we think the best chance for Trump to lose is for the Democrats to run someone who isn't old and mentally unfit.

Right now, I don't see how the Democrats will win in November, or if they do, it'll be by sheer luck. Replace Biden with someone who knows what day it is, and they will win in a landslide since age and mental capacity are two most cited reasons people don't want to vote for Biden.

You still need to do federal level presidential campaign to win.

You don't. You need to be 35 years old, a naturally born US citizen, and live in the US for 14 years and you can run. Once you raise $5,000 (I think), you need to file the paperwork with the FEC, but anyone can run a write-in campaign. Still, there are something like 1,300 people currently running for president in some capacity per FEC filings. In 2020, 1,212 people ran.

 

[inCloud]

The word "Federal" specifically refers to the apparatus of the USA's national government

they're not part of the national government apparatus until they are successfully elected

Its not what you said. Anyway, any federal criminal is part of the national government apparatus?

and they're not a politician until they are a politician.

Politician - Wikipedia

en.wikipedia.org

 

[Tornado]

Because its even more power?

I'm sure that's how Obama felt during his second term.

He would not lost any if he became president in 2016 and hold it till 2025.

He still has to win a presidential election, which (even if he probably could have in 2016) is much harder than just holding onto your position as the most or second-most powerful person in Congress which you've already held for over a decade virtually unopposed that you can already use to effectively shut the government down.

His electoral position isnt only source of his power, for the most part its his negotiation and strategy skills that could being used even better at presidential position.

Maybe if you ignore that he didn't need to be president to get Trump to do whatever he wanted him to do; yet still easily and handily won reelection himself. The fact that he's essentially retiring from the Senate now that the Supreme Court he constructed is handing out the deeply unpopular, arbitrarily-justified and wide reaching changes to the federal government that he wanted them to make from their lifetime appointments isn't lost on anyone that you're attempting to lecture; even as you still continue to try.

 

[Famine]

Its not what you said.

Yes it is.

You cannot be part of the apparatus of national government without... being part of the apparatus of national government. For someone running for government office, that requires them to be successfully elected to that office. Until then they are not part of the apparatus of national government.

It's not complicated. It's also a weird way to try to argue out of being wrong about your initial point: very few recent Presidents actually come from the federal machine.

Anyway, any federal criminal is part of the national government apparatus?

They are a criminal. They are convicted of a federal crime (one determined by the apparatus of national government), by a federal court (part of the apparatus of national government) and sentenced to serve in a federal prison (one run by the apparatus of national government).

politician

politician ("expert in the affairs of people").

That's literally the meaning of the word. You may recognise the root "polis" as forming part of other words like "police" and "metropolis", both of which pertain to being of or for (or both) the people.

As I said, Trump arguably never approached being a politician, because he didn't actually partake in politics ("the affairs of people"). He's a narcissist, and ran for power, for control, for profit, for strip-mining the government's assets for his own enrichment, and for immunity from consequences both for past and future crimes. The affairs of people never entered into it. Which is why I said "arguably".

 

[Duke]

One last thing. Biden’s fine. The flubs you’ve been dwelling on, are the same ones he’s been making for 30yrs. Personally, Elizabeth Warren would have been our best pick 4yrs ago, with Sanders a good second. However, that ship has sailed, its time to straighten up and fly right.

I would expect someone who thinks Elizabeth Warren (aka Lie-awatha) would be a good candidate to also think Biden is fine. Biden is NOT fine.

You guys spoke of responsibility, and sacrifice, for the sake of the free world…well..now its your turn to take responsibility sacrificing your personal preferences and opinions for the thing which needs to happen. That thing is going in and voting D all the way down the ballot for the sole reason of beating back trumpism and project 2025.

I am actually planning on that (or at least very strongly considering it). And in my 40 years of eligibility I have never, not once, voted for either a Democrat or Republican presidential candidate. And I've voted in every presidential and midterm election.

The Democrats stand against the majority of my political principles. But what passes for the Republican party these days is far worse.

 

[Kriptical]

I would expect someone who thinks Elizabeth Warren (aka Lie-awatha) would be a good candidate to also think Biden is fine. Biden is NOT fine.

I am actually planning on that (or at least very strongly considering it). And in my 40 years of eligibility I have never, not once, voted for either a Democrat or Republican presidential candidate. And I've voted in every presidential and midterm election.

The Democrats stand against the majority of my political principles. But what passes for the Republican party these days is far worse.

Ok then. Who would you have preferred instead..and why is Biden, not fine?

 

[Duke]

Ok then. Who would you have preferred instead..and why is Biden, not fine?

I wouldn't have preferred any Democrat, but especially not Warren, because:

• She has a ridiculous list of entitlement programs, such as "free" child care, "free" college, "free" healthcare, etc
• She proposes Draconian anti-trust policies
• Many (but not all) of her law-enforcement and criminal-justice policies would increase violent crime; though I do support decriminalization of many non-violent, victimless crimes
• She's a huge proponent of highly centrally-planned economies, which never work as intended
• She's a huge proponent of social engineering through massive subsidy, which also never works as intended
• She's anti-2A

In general, Warren is a dyed-in-the-wool, big-government, tax-and-spend Social Democrat. About the only place I agree with her even a little bit is on foreign policy.

Biden is not fine because he is demonstrably in cognitive decline. He's been a lifelong stutterer; that is not the issue. But he clearly doesn't have very resilient grasp of what's going on around him. That aside - if Biden were magically, say, 20 years younger, he still wouldn't be fine because:

• He threw buckets of gasoline on the inflationary fire started by the Republicans in 2020
• While a senator, he was a major force behind a huge criminal-justice effort that led to vastly increased incarceration rates, even for non-violent crimes
• He was a major force behind the "War On Drugs", which has demonstrably failed miserably, at huge cost - financially, criminally, socially, and individually
• He not only supports the Patriot Act, he wrote a very similar bill even before 9/11 that would have radically increased domestic surveillance

In general, Biden is also a dyed-in-the-wool, big-government, tax-and-spend Social Democrat. Except he's also got a fair bit of Big Brother in him.

 

[Jezza819]

The Democrats stand against the majority of my political principles.

And those are? And if you had rather not say that's fine I was just kind of curious. I think we're right around the same age as I've been eligible for about 40 years myself.

 

[Duke]

And those are? And if you had rather not say that's fine I was just kind of curious. I think we're right around the same age as I've been eligible for about 40 years myself.

I'm a small-L libertarian. In general, I am for limited government, both in terms of invasive personal legislation and in reducing the utterly insane amount of tax dollars spent at all levels.

• We should spend far less money on all types of programs, from military to entitlements (personal and corporate)
• We should reduce foreign military involvement and foreign aid
• We should stop social engineering via subsidy
• We should strive to reduce Corporatism by reducing the government's power and, by extension, reducing opportunities for lobbying
• We should stop trying to legislate morality and individuals' personal lives
• We should reduce or eliminate incarceration for nonviolent, victimless "crimes"
• We should reduce bureaucracy and streamline byzantine public works processes

I am not a "taxation is theft", Big-L type. I do not think the library or fire department are "socialist". I understand that we need government, laws, regulations, and public services. I am not an anarchist.

I just think the amount of government we have allowed - even asked for - has become so overbearing that it threatens to choke this country to death.

 

[Liquid]

I'm a small-L libertarian.

You are absolutely out of luck with mainstream US politics and its two parties.

 

[Duke]

You are absolutely out of luck with mainstream US politics and its two parties.

I've known this for almost 50 years at this point.

 

[TexRex]

We should strive to reduce Corporatism by reducing the government's power and, by extension, reducing opportunities for lobbying