Democrats Join 2024's Graveyard of Incumbents 392
An anonymous reader shares a post from Financial Times: The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world. From America's Democrats to Britain's Tories, Emmanuel's Macron's Ensemble coalition to Japan's Liberal Democrats, even to Narendra Modi's erstwhile dominant BJP, governing parties and leaders have undergone an unprecedented series of reversals this year.
The incumbents in every single one of the 10 major countries that have been tracked by the ParlGov global research project and held national elections in 2024 were given a kicking by voters. This is the first time this has ever happened in almost 120 years of records. Ultimately voters don't distinguish between unpleasant things that their leaders and governments have direct control over, and those that are international phenomena resulting from supply-side disruptions caused by a global pandemic or the warmongering of an ageing autocrat halfway across the world.
Voters don't like high prices, so they punished the Democrats for being in charge when inflation hit. The cost of living was also the top issue in Britain's July general election and has been front of mind in dozens of other countries for most of the last two years. That different politicians, different parties, different policies and different rhetoric deployed in different countries have all met similar fortunes suggests that a large part of Tuesday's American result was locked in regardless of the messenger or the message. The wide variety of places and people who swung towards Trump also suggests an outcome that was more inevitable than contingent.
But it's not just about inflation. An update of economist Arthur Okun's "misery index" -- the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates -- for this era might swap out joblessness and replace it with immigration. On this basis, the past couple of years in the US, UK and dozens of other countries have been characterised by more economic and societal upheaval than they have seen in generations.
The incumbents in every single one of the 10 major countries that have been tracked by the ParlGov global research project and held national elections in 2024 were given a kicking by voters. This is the first time this has ever happened in almost 120 years of records. Ultimately voters don't distinguish between unpleasant things that their leaders and governments have direct control over, and those that are international phenomena resulting from supply-side disruptions caused by a global pandemic or the warmongering of an ageing autocrat halfway across the world.
Voters don't like high prices, so they punished the Democrats for being in charge when inflation hit. The cost of living was also the top issue in Britain's July general election and has been front of mind in dozens of other countries for most of the last two years. That different politicians, different parties, different policies and different rhetoric deployed in different countries have all met similar fortunes suggests that a large part of Tuesday's American result was locked in regardless of the messenger or the message. The wide variety of places and people who swung towards Trump also suggests an outcome that was more inevitable than contingent.
But it's not just about inflation. An update of economist Arthur Okun's "misery index" -- the sum of the inflation and unemployment rates -- for this era might swap out joblessness and replace it with immigration. On this basis, the past couple of years in the US, UK and dozens of other countries have been characterised by more economic and societal upheaval than they have seen in generations.
Unemployement rates... (Score:5, Informative)
Especially unemployment rates. Some (many? most?) countries cheat on their numbers, by not counting people who have simply given up ever finding a job.
Taking the US as an example, the official unemployment rate is the U-3 rate [bls.gov], which is currently 4.1%. More honest is the U-6 rate, which is published but never used, and is at 7.7%. However even that does not include people who simply don't want to work, for whatever reason.
U6 [Re:Unemployement rates...] (Score:2)
Especially unemployment rates. Some (many? most?) countries cheat on their numbers, by not counting people who have simply given up ever finding a job. Taking the US as an example, the official unemployment rate is the U-3 rate [bls.gov], which is currently 4.1%. More honest is the U-6 rate, which is published but never used, and is at 7.7%. However even that does not include people who simply don't want to work, for whatever reason.
Maybe, but that doesn't account for the election, since the U-6 unemployment rate is currently as low as it's ever been in the last 30 years. There's a slight hint that U-6 might have bottomed out and be heading up, but so far that change is a fraction of a percent, in the noise.
The big spike in U-6 unemployment was the Covid years, when it hit 22.4% in April 2020.
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Especially unemployment rates. Some (many? most?) countries cheat on their numbers, by not counting people who have simply given up ever finding a job.
Yep, we're cheating. Only now obviously because right now it suits your narrative, but we weren't cheating a few years ago when the numbers looked higher right?
More honest is the U-6 rate
No it's not. There's nothing more or less honest. That's the whole reason multiple numbers are published. Each tells you a different thing about a different part of society. People who have given up on looking for a job are not correlated with the strength of the underlying economy which is why the number isn't typically used.
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Actually, the U-1, through U-6 numbers are highly correlated. You can check the chart here: https://www.bls.gov/charts/emp... [bls.gov]
Now I do believe that U-3 is the metric that most closely resembles what people imagine unemployment numbers should be.
And I agree that we need to use one definition and not change it. I believe, for instance, France changed which number they used in the 90s from something that looks like U-4 to something that looks like U-3. That caused tons of people stopping to trust the official n
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The reason why we mostly use the U-3 measure is because it is a natural definition of unemployment. It is basically "people who don't have a job and want/have recently searched for one". It also aligns with how most of the other countries measure unemployment which makes comparisons easy.
I don't know that it makes too much sense to count part time workers who want a better job as if they were unemployed. In all economies you are going to have not-so-appealing part time jobs; you need people to fill them too
Re:Unemploy[]ment rates... [But the loser rate is? (Score:2)
Guessing the spelling error in your Subject is evidence of your haste to FP. Apparently propagated more than 20 times and spanning about 20% of the discussion. So the span is evidence that you touched a nerve, or at least stimulated some nerves later on? So call it a pretty good FP with a distracting Subject?
My initial response would have involved expanding to consider deliberating pushing workers out of the labor force. Especially old folks from the perspective of yours truly. But at this point in time the
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:5, Insightful)
From what I can see, it's more honest to say that voters are voting against...migrants, not just "unrestrained" or "illegal" immigrants. If they were really only upset about "illegal" immigrants, they would be in favor of reforming the *legal* pathways for immigrants to enter the country. You know, like asking them to register and pay taxes. But the minute you propose such a thing, you hit a wall with people for whom immigration is an issue. So I don't believe people when they say they are really interested in curbing "illegal" immigration.
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:4, Informative)
That's what you see. This is not true in the conservative circles I frequent, many of whom are immigrants themselves. It is ABSOLUTELY about whether or not they got here legally or not, and they are ABSOLUTELY open to the idea of immigration reform to streamline the process.
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:5, Insightful)
I'm happy that you and your friends are consistent in your ideals. Trump himself, not so much, as evidenced by his demonizing of the Haitian immigrants in Columbus, Ohio, who were in the US...legally.
Trump hires lots of undocumented workers (Score:2, Interesting)
It's just stupid AF that people pick illegal immigrants as the focus of their rage. Should the be here?...no...but think for a minute. Why are they here?...because some business is hiring them. If there were no jobs, they'
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I've been saying for years I'll believe Republicans actually want to solve illegal immigration when they go after the Americans breaking the law by giving these people a reason to come here with anywhere near the intensity and vitriol that they go after illegal immigrants with. They'll advocate to flush tens of billions of dollars down the drain building a boarder wall that can be easily scaled by ladders https://www.texasmonthly.com/n... [texasmonthly.com] but heaven forbid they go for cheap enforcement of our already existi
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That's not a strawman, it's not even whataboutism, it's just random off-topic subject-changing, and it's become the primary "debate" strategy of the MAGA crowd at this point.
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many of whom are immigrants themselves.
That doesn't matter. Immigrants are happy to pull up the ladder after they make it over the wall.
Recent immigrants are the most likely to compete with future immigrants for the same jobs.
One mistake that Democrats made was taking Latinos for granted. On Tuesday, they voted Republican in record-high numbers.
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:5, Interesting)
Trump did gain Latino votes, but did not gain a majority of them.
And why did these Latinos switch to Trump? It wasn't because of immigration. It was because of the economy. [nbcnews.com]
My take is that this whole election was a referendum on the economy. People didn't care about Trump's record, either in the White House or in the courts. They just hated how prices went up, and chose Orange Man because they think he'll make it better.
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The Pope is the head-of-state of The Vatican, not Italy.
Not sure what your point was, but here's mine again: certainly there have been US presidents who have demonstrated shaky personal (i.e., moral) character. But none -- absolutely none -- of them went anywhere near as low as Trump did, and continues to go.
He's a convicted felon, an adjudicated rapist, and a business fraud. That's just what I remember off the top of my head. And that list doesn't include stuff for which he still hasn't faced trial: foment
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:2)
Did they, though?
I realize that analysts can slice-and-dice demographics, but unless their observations come with some participation data, I don't think it says anything.
At the current count, Trump's 2024 popular-vote landslide win appears to be the result of about 80,000 more total votes than his 2020 popular-vote landslide loss. I think it's far more relevant to ask why there were 10M+ fewer total votes this cycle than it is to speculate about
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:3)
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Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:5, Insightful)
If "no one" is kept from immigrating legally, why do we have detention centers in Mexico, preventing asylum seekers from entering? Why do we have a green card lottery, that limits the number of immigrants to a specific maximum threshold? Why do we have caps on H1b visas that are so low that the caps are typically exceeded by March of each year? No, it's not honest for you to claim that "anyone" who wants to immigrate legally, can do so.
You contradict yourself when you say that we are "probably too generous" with the number we allow in.
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Prior to COVID, prior to Biden Admin, we had a pretty consistent one million immigrants in the country at any one time, and it wasn't really considered a problem. As some transitioned to permanent residents/citizens. The issue today is the countless people here seeking asylum without a credible basis for their asylum claim (last I heard around 90% of asylum seekers that return for their trials are denied asylum).
One of the issues that aggrevates the situation is that asylum seekers are provided with housing
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:4, Interesting)
Prior to COVID, prior to Biden Admin, we had a pretty consistent one million immigrants in the country at any one time, and it wasn't really considered a problem. As some transitioned to permanent residents/citizens. The issue today is the countless people here seeking asylum without a credible basis for their asylum claim (last I heard around 90% of asylum seekers that return for their trials are denied asylum).
Asylum is definitely a mess. The problem isn't necessarily that people don't need to flee their countries (they often do), the problem is that once they flee they're basically using it as an excuse to immigrate to a nation of their choice.
The other problem is funding, folks complain but they're not willing to spend the money to fix it at the source. It there any reason you can't add enough judges to deal with cases in a couple weeks?
Letting someone stay several years building a life and then kicking them out? That's pretty screwed up.
Ending "Remain in Mexico" was a huge, huge problem, but the Biden administration was hell-bent on repealling anything implemented by the previous administration, logic be damned.
"Remain in Mexico" was a huge, huge problem. You can't just force Mexico to indefinitely serve as a housing area for asylum seekers, particular when the program contradicted US law.
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:4, Insightful)
Prior to COVID, prior to Biden Admin, we had a pretty consistent one million immigrants in the country at any one time, and it wasn't really considered a problem. As some transitioned to permanent residents/citizens. The issue today is the countless people here seeking asylum without a credible basis for their asylum claim
Ken, you're pulling numbers out of your ass again.
https://www.pewresearch.org/sh... [pewresearch.org]
I like how you keep saying the issue is the number, and hand wave and bullshit without actually naming any problem other than people are here. Oh their asylum claim, you're so insightful Ken, that's what it is! Unless they're from Haiti, bootstraps for them for totally not racist reasons. Oh there's just plain too many people here. Except for the declining birth rate and weird fucks trying to have as many children as possible out of wedlock running the government.
Yes, I'm sure you have a totally legit problem with the current number, of, whatever the fuck it is doesn't matter it goes away with a different man in office. Change a 7 into an 1, carry an 11, then everything's fine, but you're a little light on the actual numbers or problem huh bud? Oh hey at least you're not one of those bigots right, you have a REAL problem, with the number, right.
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:3)
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The number of people who want to work but can't seems like the most useful metric. Otherwise you are counting people who are medically unable to work, people doing unpaid work like caring for someone or raising children etc.
Those are not mutually exclusive. Sometimes shit happens and you need to not work for a bit to deal with it.
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The unemployment numbers track the number of unemployed americans that have applied for/collect unemployment benefits.
It does not track "people still looking for a job".
It does not track anyone that has exhausted their unemployment benefits.
It is a lousy number to follow, but we have used it for decades, so it is the only useful metric for comparing unemployment levels across administrations/years.
A better metric is the workforce participation number [bls.gov], but few politicians like to discuss that much, much larg
Re: Unemployement rates... (Score:2)
No. The Bureau of Labor Statistics conducts a poll. I like how they're more gentle than I would be, not using the phrase "uninformed idiots":
Some people think that to get these figures on unemployment, the government uses the number of people collecting unemployment insurance (UI) benefits under state or federal government programs. But some people are still jobless when their benefits
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Saw some guy on Twitter saying he voted to get rid of Obamacare and just keep the ACA, apparently not realizing that they are the same thing. He seemed to be pretty reliant on the ACA to stay alive too.
Oy vey. [wiktionary.org]
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In California we have a locally funded program called IHSS which pays people for providing care, and if the care provider lives with the recipient then the income is non-taxable. The rate is usually very close to minimum wage, but the flip side of that is that it can pay for caring for a family member who you would be caring for whether you were getting paid or not. In the case of a family member this can include medical care, which is normally managed by other programs, but most providers are assisting wit
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California certainly seems a lot more progressive and pragmatic than many other places. We have a similar system in the UK to support carers, but it's crap and badly needs fixing. There was a bit of a controversy when it was suggested that older people should pay for some of their own care through the value of property they own, reclaimed when their children inherit it, mainly because properly is extremely unaffordable and many people rely on inheritance to get on that ladder.
There was a plan to have a Nati
Fancy words (Score:5, Insightful)
The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.
That's a very fancy way to say that they've done goofed up...
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The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.
That's a very fancy way to say that they've done goofed up...
Yup. And now need to explain why those irrelevant folks, er, let's call them "voters", rejected them.
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The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.
That's a very fancy way to say that they've done goofed up...
Yup. And now need to explain why those irrelevant folks, er, let's call them "voters", rejected them.
I'll go out on a limb and note that there is an elephant in the room.
Kamala Harris had a real male voter problem. And that makes for a problem, because people with penises are still allowed to vote.
And not much was done until they brought out the really cringy Men for Harris advert, which probably made it worse. A Chad, a Tyrone, but then for some reason they put in a dirty morbidly obese guy who bragged about knowing how to rebuild a carburetor, an effeminate guy sitting on his pickup tailgate, and a
Worldwide [Re:Fancy words] (Score:5, Interesting)
I'll go out on a limb and note that there is an elephant in the room. Kamala Harris had a real male voter problem. And that makes for a problem, because people with penises are still allowed to vote.
Does not explain why this data shows incumbent parties are losing "in every single one of the 10 major countries" worldwide.
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I'll go out on a limb and note that there is an elephant in the room. Kamala Harris had a real male voter problem. And that makes for a problem, because people with penises are still allowed to vote.
Does not explain why this data shows incumbent parties are losing "in every single one of the 10 major countries" worldwide.
That is correct - Which is why I only mentioned Harris' problem. Her campaign was aimed at women voters. There was a pretty clear delineation, and even when they tried to address it, they made a stereotype advertisement that was pretty cringy. It showed what their concept of men are, and definitely did not help their cause. I haven't voted for republicans for over 20 years now, and didn't this election either.
But I get a lot of hate from women who believe that I am the problem because I am a man.
As hu
Re:Fancy words (Score:5, Interesting)
It's funny that I only hear this type of thing from conservative men. I know I personally have never felt any meaningful level of women perceiving men as any kind of enemy. Yes, many women take issue with the fact that more men than women appose abortion but I've certainly never felt that was an issue with men in general.
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It's funny in 1972 when Nixon won 49 of 50 states, Paulina Kael said she didn't know any Nixon voters, unlike you though, she did not doubt their existence, just she did not know any. If y
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Never hear anyone say anything about "smashing the patriarchy"? Seems like a good example to me.
patriarchy "a system of society or government in which men hold the power and women are largely excluded from it."
How on earth is it man hating for a woman to be against THAT. Really anyone in favor of a society of equals should be against patriarchy. Leadership shouldn't be determined by gender any more then it should be by race
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For starters, I don't use social media. It's garbage.
After that, how is it man hating to be bothered that men disproportionally voted for a political party that is generally in favor of limiting women? Why wouldnt a woman be bothered by those specific men (particularly since men don't have to do any of the hard parts of baby making but want to tell women how to manage it) and how is that hating on men in general? I've heard a few women complaining about how this election went relative to female bodily auton
Re:Fancy words (Score:5, Insightful)
The economic and geopolitical conditions of the past year or two have created arguably the most hostile environment in history for incumbent parties and politicians across the developed world.
That's a very fancy way to say that they've done goofed up...
And you have a very fancy way of saying they fucked up in unimaginable ways.
Losing, is one thing. Losing like we haven’t seen in 120 years? That deserves a seven-figure fight contract with the UFC just for the entertainment value.
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That was a really simple post to show you didn't get the point at all, and you're exactly the kind of voter who is the real problem.
"Bad thing happened, blame politician regardless of actual cause and effect, vote for opposition without considering policy".
Wonderful.
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If anything, you calling him the real problem IS the real problem.
It's an inherent fault of democracy that politicians get judged on promises and fast, charming talk, while incumbents get judged on actual results.
You could say that voters should do their homework and look into the candidate's past and do proper diligence, but that too is an inherent fault of democracy since the vote of someone who does due diligence, and someone who's gonna decide based on what the guy in front of him will pick, both count
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This might be a tall reach, and it will only get taller with every year of internet brain rot.
Reagan broke school funding. Whether you agree that this was intentional or not (I do) this has had an undeniably significant effect on our education systems, which were already starting to suffer. Something had to be done, but what he did wasn't it.
Screwing up education has been a bipartisan effort. Biden was instrumental in creating the student loan problem, for example. But the Gipper really leaned in there and hit us at an early age.
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No, you didn't get the point. All of the western leadership has fscked up in a major way during the last 50 years. Voters flipping between parties is them searching desperately for someone to actually deliver some results. In vain, because there is no results to be found, only more fsckups.
Voting is not going to change any of this, as the choices offered up for vote are meaningless. Whichever cheek of the ass you vote for, the ass is still going to shit all over you.
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That's a very fancy way to say that they've done goofed up...
Who did? Democrats? The left? The continent? When you move outside the bubble and see that cost of living has skyrocketed the entire world over and transcends all of the political spectrum and even transcends economic systems, it shows the only people who have "goofed up" are the idiots who blame it on political party X in their home country.
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Everyone goofed up. The idiots who blame it on party X goofed up, but you cannot blame them, because the parties have conditioned them to do that through constant media bullshit; in any case these idiots goofing up is nonconcsequentianonl, as they don't have any sway over the political functioning of a country.
The leadership goofing up, all of them, every party and every country, that has real consequences, and the consequences are here, and dire, and we haven't got the faintest actual idea of how to do any
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It's also very hard to be anything but mediocre when the economy is a complete wreck. Th hard right coast on the work of the centre, looking OK while the foundations collapse. The centre come back and start fixing stuff, but things aren't great while they do so. Eventually they claw their way out of the hole, but generally people remember the bad years after they get in.
Now I'm not particularly fond of Starmer. The budget was better than it could have been, but lacked ambition. Nonetheless even with serious
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The mediocre centrists always tell you that their hands are tied by the messed up economy that the last hard right government left them with, but it's not true.
They are simply unwilling to make the choice to rebalance the economy to work for 95% of the population, instead of the top 5%.
That's exactly what Labour did in the budget. There were a few token things like VAT on private school fees and changes to inheritance tax, but it didn't do anything radical. In 5 years time when the next election is due, the
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The mediocre centrists always tell you that their hands are tied by the messed up economy that the last hard right government left them with, but it's not true.
Nonethelss, there is no magic. We've had 14 years of austerity, and mismanagement and now at a time of higher interest rates there are limits to what any government can do.
I don't disagree with what you are saying in principle, and while the budget was a breath of fresh air on the side of not being woefully incompetent, it was disappointingly like th
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Even if the government is unwilling to raise the money from taxation, it can borrow. Sure it's not as cheap as it used to be, but borrowing to invest is still a sensible idea. Invested wisely it's not difficult to see a much bigger return than the cost of borrowing it.
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Hahaha, you hit the nail on the head with modern Democrats. They weren't always like this...
As for the end of your post, I hope you don't think I'm being rude here but I feel like I hear this type of hopeless pessimism from Brits often nowadays about their country. All countries have high points and low points over the course of their history. So the UK is currently at a low point. So what? It's happened to every country. Being hopeless about it won't help one little bit and if anything it's a hindrance to
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So we have this thing called the Office for Budget Responsibility (OBR), which is an independent branch of the government that provides financial forecasts. They evaluate government budgets and lay out projections based on different policies. They are generally thought to be fairly reliable.
The OBR says that Brexit has caused a permanent 4% decline in GDP. That's pretty significant. Brexit has also pushed Northern Ireland and Scotland closer to leaving the union - not that I mind that, but there won't be mu
Inflation (Score:2)
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One of few things where political instincts and the public's best interests align behind the lie, I think.
If a politician comes out and says, "we're fucked, folks, bend over and grab your ankles"... you get widespread panic and the situation gets worse, and the politician gets run out of town. They have to lie with the most optimistic interpretation of the economy that they can sell, for both their own self-interest and the general public's.
Of course, the politicians seeking power are free to tell us all t
New political tactics (Score:2)
Great. Because politicians are known for being altruists who would rather do their best to lead us for the common good and not craven opportunists. (/s)
If you want your party and your personal political career to survive... you have to bail as soon as something bad and outside your control appears on the horizon, let the other party take the fall for it, then come in as the savior afterwards. That doesn't sound like a great formula for good governance.
Incumbency?? (Score:4, Interesting)
Please don’t take this as some kind of MAGA victory lap – because it isn’t. That said, I have seen very little to no consideration by those on the left of the possibility that the American people simply believe the Trump’s policies overall are better than Harris’s. The pundits and politicians on the left site incumbency or misogyny or racism or some strategic messaging mistake to urban single men in the south with red hair without even taking a breath to slow down and consider – maybe the people just don’t want her policies, and, yes – to really consider that maybe the people made the right decision based on their own self interests. It is possible.
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You are exactly right. I live among many Trump supporters. They were *not* reacting to "incumbency." They are instead, horrified by Biden's policies.
They *hate*
- abortion
- gay marriage
- being forced to use transgender pronouns and allowing boys to compete in girls' sports, etc.
- immigrants (No, not just the illegal ones, all immigrants. If they were really OK with legal immigration, they would be in favor of reforming the process to enter legally, but they are not.)
- excessive environmental regulation (exce
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While those wedge issues were likely a factor, exit polls noted that the #1 issue for voters was the economy. People were angry about inflation, jobs, and taxes.
Of course, inflation is now down to 2.4%. Unemployment is at a ten year low. The stock market is at record highs. Federal income taxes are near the 50-year average. Corporate profits are high. Gasoline prices are down. The US currently has one of the best economies in the western world. But when you talk to Trump supporters, they blame Biden
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Trump was running commercials back in 2020 calling Biden's age into question. Now Trump is older than than Biden was back then.
President Trump, you – you talked about how the increase in the price of food, gas and rent is hurting families, but the real cost that’s breaking families’ backs and preventing women from participating in the workforce is child care. Child care is now more expensive than rent for working families and is costing the economy more than $122 billion a year, making it
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Regarding tariffs and deportation, it's actually hard to tell the difference between Trump and Biden.
Biden's administration deported about the same number of immigrants as Trump. https://www.migrationpolicy.or... [migrationpolicy.org]
The Biden administration kept most of Trump's tariffs, and even expanded some of them. https://www.politico.com/news/... [politico.com]
While Trump cozied up to Putin, Biden capitulated to the Taliban.
So when you look at things from a balanced perspective, it's kind of hard to see which devil is worse.
Re:Incumbency?? (Score:5, Insightful)
While Trump cozied up to Putin, Biden capitulated to the Taliban.
Trump unilaterally did the Doha deal with the Taliban releasing thousands of enemy prisoners and seeking to lift sanctions which demoralized our afghan and collation allies. The deal also committed the US to complete withdrawal.
Can you imagine being at war and your biggest ally makes a deal behind your back with the enemy that provides assistance to the enemy. That's what Trump did with the Taliban.
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Even if your statement were true, which it isn't, I'm perfectly fine with the economy takeing a hit while righting the ship.
I prefer to live in a country, not an economy. First, let's figure out what kind of a country we want to live in, *then* we figure our what kind of an economy will support it, rather than the way around.
I'm really tired of this notion that the economy is an angry volcano god we have to keep throwing virgins into to appease. First, we do what's good for the interests of the citizens of
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Tariffs and deportations are going to hammer the American economy badly - these things aren't even slightly difficult to understand, so if you don't it's because you don't want to. Tearing down what little accountability the 1% had under the law is not going to help the little guy either. Breaking alliances to cozy up to fascist dictators isn't going to enhance American power and standing around the world, nor what global stability we've enjoyed for the last few decades.
Commentary from Aleksandr Dugin (A Russian Goebbels wannabee) on Trump's election victory: "So we have won. That is decisive. The world will be never ever like before. Globalists have lost their final combat. The future is finally open"
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So we're back on the Russia,Russia,Russia hobby horse. LUL.
Gotta love the LALLALALLA sentiment. If you just dismiss it all as noise then you get to ignore reality with impunity.
https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/... [wikipedia.org]
You pointed out that Alek is a Goebbels wannabe, so why would you take anything he said with a grain of salt?
It is a reflection of Russian imperialist mindset to which he is a notable contributor. With the US out of the way Russia is now free to wage wars of conquest throughout Europe.
It's society's fault. Typical liberal excuses. (Score:4, Insightful)
Yes, a "rightwing" party lost big in Britain, if anything in Europe can count as "rightwing." But this was also the same party that's been undoing the damage from the Right Honorable Head of Lettuce for the past two years.
Yeah the dems got some headwinds. But you know what: if you lose the popular vote to Donald Trump, it's not headwinds, it's your own dumbass policies that done it:
Natural gas export freeze, drilling bans, ICE car bans, gas stove bans, bullshit dishwasher efficiency standards, loan forgiveness for grown ass adults who made suboptimal choices and now want mommy government to take the ouchies away, Sam Brinton (https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Sam_Brinton) in charge of securing nuclear waste, "whole-of-government" equity mandates, you name it.
Re:It's society's fault. Typical liberal excuses. (Score:4, Interesting)
But this was also the same party that's been undoing the damage from the Right Honorable Head of Lettuce for the past two years.
This was the same party that installed the Right Honorable Head of Lettuce. Only the Tory party MPs got to vote on the replacement for Johnson.
Let's not forget the sleaze brought to politics by Johnson and his cronies.
Trying to blame Tory party problems in Liz Truss is nonsensical.
Re: It's society's fault. Typical liberal excuses. (Score:2)
You misunderstand. The tories' downfall is the result of their own mistakes, not "headwinds". Just like the democrats.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, a "rightwing" party lost big in Britain, if anything in Europe can count as "rightwing."
I'm not sure what you're trying to say, presumably literal neo-nazis are not "right wing" enough for you. Do you think Orban isn't right wing? Wilders? Meloni? What does someone need to do to please you? Pass a law legalising the lynching of immigrants? What about the entire AfD which just made headway in regional elections throughout Germany, you know the party that proposed deporting all Muslims even if they are German citizens?
Yeah nothing will ever be right wing enough for you, presumably not until we r
Re: It's society's fault. Typical liberal excuses. (Score:2)
Nazis. Communists. All statist, collectivist trash.
Tell me, comrade: Does your favorite "rightwing" bogeyman or woman deign to allow unrestricted speech? Permit free citizens to carry arms for self-defense? Entrust the population to manage their own finances without the state demanding a 40%+ cut, for their own good?
Have fun wallowing in the ashes of the Old World, friend.
Re: (Score:2)
Yes, a "rightwing" party lost big in Britain, if anything in Europe can count as "rightwing."
Either you don't know much about Europe or you think that the Republican party is to the right of the Italian neo-fascists. Sure you know what I'll let you have that one.
But this was also the same party that's been undoing the damage from the Right Honorable Head of Lettuce for the past two years.
Not really. Truss was a spectacular, but ultimately a minor bit part. This is the party that eviscerated public services
Re: (Score:2)
The government isn't taking away your cars or stoves. I can explain the stove ban (more like a warning label) if you care to listen. Newly constructed homes are well sealed and don't have good air exchange leading to higher carbon monoxide levels and other combustion byproducts. Ah but there is a magic new technology in the culinary world known as induction. In fact it heats pans faster than gas and has tons of features like being able to lock in pan at a specific temperature. Induction stoves even have sen
Re: It's society's fault. Typical liberal excuses. (Score:3, Insightful)
There's a magic device next to my stove called an "exhaust vent." I'm sure many homes have one.
There's also this thing called amperage. A home or neighborhood designed for gas heating and cooking will have lower amperage conductors feeding it. Maybe a couple or three guys on the street can electrify but doing it for the whole block would require upgrading the transmission capacity at significant cost.
This latter effect is known as the fallacy of composition: the assertion that what's good for me is going to
Mandate (Score:5, Insightful)
Even with all the hopes for change, yesterdays' incumbents were at one time the winds of change, but they became arrogant and bought off.
And I hold no illusions the same won't happen again.
I doubt any structural change will happen without the threat of civil war, and in such fraught circumstances, it is difficult to chart a course towards that change.
Meet the new boss. Same as the old boss.
How politicians work... (Score:4, Funny)
When campaigning: "Put me in office! I'll fix all the stuff you don't like!"
Once in office: "Your life now sucks, you can't afford anything, and you lost your job? Not my fault, sorry! Can't do anything about it. But don't you DARE elect those other guys, they'll just make it worse!"
Well, almost (Score:2)
FTFS:
Well, actually, voters don't like high prices, so they punished the Democrats for being in charge when corporate price gouging and housing price gouging hit and never backed off.
Also, because they have no other lever to "encourage" the corrupt political system to do something about it. Not that they will, of course. Have to keep those sweet corporate bribe flows running smoothly.
Re: (Score:2)
In a competitive market, price gouging is a fiction. I think a big reason Harris lost was her proposal for Soviet-style price fixing.
Bullshit (Score:2, Insightful)
Re: (Score:3)
You can't argue with someone who still thinks COVID was a hoax. You can call them a moron and move on, so at least they don't take silence as agreement, but that's about it.
Keep politics out of slashdot (Score:2)
And keep it out of the workplace.
And out of the movies.
And out of bars.
As a bartender explained to a reporter why she turned the sound off at the bar on election night, "politics makes people angry, and angry people don't buy drinks."
Perhaps it's not change (Score:2)
Yes... (Score:2)
... But to be fair on voters, the Democrats were well aware tgat Trump's policies were dangerously inflationary and that the world situation was dangerously unstable when they went into power.
They could have urged the Federal Reserve to take action sooner (although they couldn't have actually made them).
They could have put fewer constraints on the money for moving chip manufacturing back to America.
They could have offered incentives, as part of that deal, for Intel to boost QA, which would have resulted in
No Funny here? (Score:2)
Sadness. The topic needed some levity.
There's an unspoken commonality... (Score:4, Insightful)
Every single one of these losing political entities was populated by jackasses who hang out with the globalists who go to Davos every year and plot to undermine nation states, national sovereignty, citizenship, national identities and cultures, and the lives and concerns of average people. These political leaders who went down in flames all participated in various schemes backed by guys like Klaus Schwab and George Soros to import massive waves of immigrants, clamp down on unapproved speech and opinions, reduce punishments for serious violent criminals, and move industries around to maximize profits for the billionaire globalist elites with no regard for the effects on average people. They all introduced or worsened the chaos in their respective countries to satisfy a bunch of would-be Dr Evils. In short, they all behaved towards their own populations in ways that would have made Louis XVI and Marie Antoinette blush, but this being modern times, they were not beheaded; they were simply kicked out of office.
This is not about "left" or "right" (no matter how those terms are defined in the various countries), but rather it's a conflict between average people who were comfortable in their particular countries with their particular cultures, and globalists who want to flush that all away and build a "new world order" in which a small pool of self-selected rich and powerful people dictate the terms of life to everybody else.
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
Laws do not mean anything unless society is willing to enforce them.
We agree. So feel free to detail a valid argument against exercising the 25th Amendment for at least the last 2 years.
When that President actually proves to be a dictator, then we will deal with it. Until then, stop acting like the idiot who actually believes campaign promises. It’s 2024 for fucks sake.
Re: (Score:2)
Where is the line exactly? Granting the president immunity from virtually all crimes committed in office wasn't it. Taking away women's bodily autonomy wasn't it.
It's one of those cases where it actually is a slippery slope, as the dictator gains control of more and more parts of the government, removes barriers to their dictatorship one by one.
Will it be enough when he starts prosecuting his political enemies on trumped up charges? And what are you actually going to do about it then?
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Biden wasn’t giving word salad answers and standing on stage listening to music for 40 minutes. If Biden showed did any of those things they’d hospitalize him.
https://newrepublic.com/post/1... [newrepublic.com]
https://amp.theguardian.com/us... [theguardian.com]
Hell he was giving incomprehensible speeches back in 2016.
https://www.snopes.com/fact-ch... [snopes.com]
What nonsense... (Score:2)
When that President actually proves to be a dictator, then we will deal with it.
Oh good, so basically when it's too late to do anything about it that's when we should do something about it then?
Until then, stop acting like the idiot who actually believes campaign promises. It’s 2024 for fucks sake.
So you're saying people shouldn't form opinions on candidates based on what they say? What exactly should we base our voting on then? At the very least, even if you don't believe a candidate will follow through on an arming thing they have said, you should be concerned that they thought it would get them votes.
Re: (Score:2)
Oops, arming = alarming
Re: (Score:3, Insightful)
According to Hurr, Biden was likely unfit to stand trial.
Re: What does the Constitution even mean anymore? (Score:2)
https://www.law.cornell.edu/us... [cornell.edu]
"8 U.S. Code  1324 - Bringing in and harboring certain aliens"
Re: (Score:3, Informative)
Anyway, being race-obsessed, gender-bender-obsessed, high-immigration loving wankers who love to censor, jail, and project everything onto your political opponents didn't help you much either ...
Trump being race-obsessed: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/... [cbsnews.com]
Trump being gender-obsessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch?... [youtube.com]
Trump loving high-immigration: https://www.azcentral.com/stor... [azcentral.com]
Trump censoring: https://www.foxnews.com/media/... [foxnews.com]
Trump wanting to jail political opponents: https://www.usatoday.com/story... [usatoday.com]
As a
Re: (Score:2, Insightful)
You're gaslighting us right?
* Trump being race-obsessed: https://www.cbsnews.com/video/ [cbsnews.com]... [cbsnews.com]
That interviewer was hostile as could be and Trump was a real gentlemen. I watched the whole thing when it was live this summer, it's fine. The race-obsession is yours.
* Trump being gender-obsessed: https://www.youtube.com/watch [youtube.com]?... [youtube.com]
Trump is advocating for YOUR SIDE to stop being gender weirdos. Yes, weirdos. 1% of the population doesn't get to decide what's normal. We'll tolerate it, but w
Re: (Score:3, Interesting)
That interviewer was hostile as could be and Trump was a real gentlemen.
I can't.... I just can't. Trump got only softball questions, and shat his pants in replies. Trump has never been to a truly hostile interview, where he has to sit and answer questions of someone who truly hates him. Not once within the last 6 years.
Re:Whatever helps you sleep at night (Score:5, Insightful)
Doesn't seem like TFA is trying to blame the world for Democrats' poor performance this time around. It's more like they're observing the Democrats getting the boot, and saying, "Look, there's a global pattern going on, here."
Re:Whatever helps you sleep at night (Score:5, Interesting)
Anyway, being race-obsessed, gender-bender-obsessed, high-immigration loving wankers
The only people who keep endlessly posting this shit are you, Iamwaysmarterthanyou and a few other self identified right wingers. You are fucking obsessed about race and gender.
But please, do keep grasping at straws and not understanding why you lost.
Oddly enough a nation where ~50% of the population appear happy to deny bodily autonomy to women doesn't seem so keen on having one as president. Weird!
Re: (Score:3)
I understand why the Democrats lost.
They put forward a woman which was a bad idea when a significant fraction of the country hate women.
They are also up against a population where a significant fraction appears to be living an alternative reality with facts that don't match this is one, such as you know thinking the election was stolen in 2020.
As for the rest, people talk about policy, but it doesn't hold up to inspection. They both studiously info l ignored everything Harris said and carefully cherry picke
Re: (Score:2)
I studied the link you provided and the massive dip occurs in 2021. I can't seem to find the legislation, are you able to link to it?
Re: (Score:2)
Did you just discover the word "gerrymandering"? You posted at least 10 times mentioning it. You remind me of a kid who has just discovered a new word and who keeps on using it over and over again.
Re: (Score:3)
Gerrymandering is a political thing, not just a Republican thing. Democrats engage in it just as enthusiastically, whenever they can.
https://www.vox.com/22961590/r... [vox.com]
Re: (Score:2)
"Republicans did what they always do: they took their gerrymandering heat maps and used them to shut down polling places in blue districts and send too few voting machines to the ones they couldn't shut down."
List the specific "polling places" in "blue districts" where REPUBLICANS "sent too few voting machines" or you're lying to yourself.
I am a veteran poll worker. Get your ugly politics out of our elections rules and processes, which are set years in advance, and if there are any last-minute changes, they