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They really don't seem to understand-- we don't care about party lines. We want accountability.
Vance is an idiot, but I think he knows what he's doing here. We're not the intended recipients of his threat. He's trying to get more Democrats on board with changing the subject. Pedophile rapists from both parties are in the Epstein files, and Vance is sounding the horn of Gondor for all oligarchs across partisan lines to come to his aid.
Unpopular opinion, but Vance is actually quite clever. He's ambitious and plays the game well. His history is riddled with sucking onto whatever's doing well. When he was younger it could be argued he was actually a good person at times, but ambition took over and he's certainly a prime candidate for any devil wanting a cheap soul.
If this shit continues, he'll do well out of it because he plays his cards well. He knows when to be the idiot that throws people under the bus for personal gain, he knows when to be the idiot that throws himself under the bus for being valued internally, he knows when to say the right things at the right time to weirdly seem sensible at times. Then out of no where "slips up" to make chaos.
The dude seems to be a cunning fox when you actually look at the big picture over time. Every time he does something stupid, I'm sure it's intentional. It's either that or he's improbably fucking lucky and Americans are dumber than we realised.
I mean, he's standing behind a demented octogenarian with multiple felony convictions who does four impeachable things before breakfast, which consists primarily of fast food and overcooked steaks. From an actuarial view, Trump has the lowest chance of finishing his term since that guy who died from pneumonia he contracted during his inauguration.
Vance doesn't mind that he looks like a knob-goblin because he's maneuvered himself to real actual power, which he never would have achieved on his own gravitas or charisma.
The thing is, when Trump kicks the bucket, Vance will promptly be ignored.
Trump picked Vance for being a completely nonthreatening to Trump's power.
I think Vance would then flip on everything Trump failed at and refer to his historical ctions to say, "I was never about that", appealing to a lot of short-term thinkers on the back of a large angry mob familiar with him and are looking to redeem their egos. And he seems to be kind of playing that. He can't be too loud else he'll lose favour, hence he's been around a long time when most others are well and truly discarded by now.
Vance is 100% a creature owned by Peter Thiel.
Vance would try to Speedrun the remainder of Project 2025.
Exactly this. It wasn't Trump's decision to run him as vice, and Peter Thiel put him there for a reason.
Trump is the one who accepted Vance. Thiel has dozens of tech bros he probably put forward, but Vance was the least threatening to Trump.
Didn’t Trump say that he didn’t want Vance to step into his shoes? He didn’t say who his successor would be, but it wasn’t Vance.
Trump doesn't want a successor. Because a successor is a threat today.
Sure. If Trump dies or resigns, Vance will probably start every meeting reminding everyone that he's in charge since he's the rightful president. Then all the actually powerful people will just continue to do whatever the fuck they want.
Vance isn't a moron, just an uncharismatic weasel who latches onto anything that he thinks will give him power
It’s either that or he’s improbably fucking lucky and Americans are dumber than we realised.
I lean on the latter, truth be told.
I disagree. He wants that oval office couch (and the presidency that comes with it). This helps get him that couch.
That’ll happen as soon as the heritage foundation reaches enough of their goals and don’t need the distraction of Trump to get away with their shit unnoticed anymore, he’ll be dead before the end of his term and there won’t be another presidential election because we will be in a fascist christian theocracy.
I mean, he wins either way. He is probably content to keep banging the VP couches, but if he gets a promotion that is just gravy.
At this stage, the evidence is tainted, and anything that this administration claims is in the Epstein files is suspect. It's a near-certainty that the DoJ's deal with Ghislaine Maxwell was for her to perjure herself by naming a list of names provided by Trump in exchange for a pardon or at least a less difficult time inside.
They're also not above doctoring documents to include names of perceived enemies, as well as to excise Trump's name, and the names of other fascists.
Yep, the only remaining thread the uh, MAGA doubters have left to cling onto, yeah, that's their QAnon derived idea that, sure, there's some bad Republicans...
...but far and away all the real bad guys are Dems, and they are all hiding everything, because they are the Deep State, even after they're not in power and have been largely purged from any mid or lower level gov positions.
They have to keep believing in a gigantic conspiracy, that everything is 5D chess, that all thr bad guys are keeping secret from them.
Otherwise, the cognitive dissonance collapses along with their personality and mental stability.
We are years past the point where these people all just believe any actual news that isn't MAGA affirming is fake.
These people will not watch or listen to any Dem, Dem influencer, Dem voter, any leftist, anything that platforms a non Republican saying 'Fuck Bill Clinton, yep he's probably in the files, yep he should probably go to jail, as should anyone seriously implicated in all this.'
They cannot hear this because their minds would collapse, so they avoid it, and if they do accidentally hear it, time for more conspiracy logic to 'explain' how somehow there is a secret evil motive behind saying that.
It'd be real cool I'd you wanted change instead. Lmao. Centuries of history proved it's pretty hard to hold kings accountable.
These are not mutually exclusive, but thanks for that
“I have to say, Maria, I laugh at the Democrats who are now all of a sudden so interested in the Epstein files. For four years, Joe Biden and the Democrats did absolutely nothing about this story. We know that Jeffrey Epstein had a lot of connections with left-wing politicians and left-wing billionaires,” Vance told Bartiromo, adding: And now President Trump has demanded full transparency from this. And yet somehow the Democrats are attacking him and not the Biden administration, which did nothing for four years.
Biden should have released everything. GW should have never given him the "no prosecution" deal, and Obama should have blown the whistle before people even knew his name. And trump should have also done it his first term
That's what Vance doesn't understand.
trump can't really "both sides" things anymore, he is the Republican party now.
Meanwhile the DNC finally bucked neoliberism and while we still got some shit incumbents, the party is back on the right course for the next presidential.
In 2028 we can have a progressive with no neoliberal baggage who gets those "both sides suck" votes, and that's a huge demographic these days.
Meanwhile the DNC finally bucked neoliberism...
In 2028 we can have a progressive with no neoliberal baggage
I'll believe it when I see it. I fully expect the superdelegates to crown another milquetoast neolib as nominee. Newsom or Harris probably. There will almost certainly be some silliness in 26 and 27 to get some lesser-known names propped up some so that they can have a chance, but we'll have a stage with 15 people on it and only about 3 will be taken seriously. Idk who specifically to even hope for right now. There are some good younger Dems, but they need more time in the oven before even attempting a presidential run. Fox News has done a good job demonizing certain names such that even people who aren't plugged into it have heard and believe the attacks.
For example, I don't think AOC could get elected for anything other than her current district or maybe Senate. She might even hurt a ticket as a VP pick. She might be good on a cabinet, but that's not elected, and that's probably the end of her political career.
Buttigieg has been doing the work of getting on right wing media to surgically dismantle attacks and explain how his policy positions benefit everyday Americans, and I think he usually comes off as intelligent and compassionate, not condescending. As with all politicians, I don't put him on any sort of pedestal, but he's putting in the work and proving he has effective communication, and that's an incredibly important skill for a president to have.
Idk. There's still a little hope in the tank here, and I'll vote in my primary to try to get somebody who isn't ass garbage, but I expect something like Newsom v Youngkin/Vance if trump isn't still alive and cancelling elections to cling onto power.
Is Buttigieg not a neoliberal?? As I recall, neoliberalism is characterized by austerity, de-regulation, tax cuts, and privatization.
He certainly seemed pro-austerity and pro-privatization back in 2019-2020 with his milquetoast “Medicare for All Who Want It” talk. And he is from McKinsey after all.
Yep, that's more or less why I said I don't put him on a pedestal. But as DOT secretary, he recognized the need for collecting tax dollars and using them effectively, plus things like the East Palestine, Ohio train derailment resulted in him directly, loudly, publicly raising awareness to the need to regulate these essential industries and sectors more stringently to prevent future disasters.
I think he's learned a lot in the past 5 years. I'm open to people having the ability to learn and grow if they're showing actual evidence of it, and he is imo. I can't hold his McKinsey roots against him forever. I worked at Walmart for a few months nearly 20 years ago, and that has very little to do with who I am now.
Welp, that's certainly a whole bunch of opinions...
Yep, it certainly was.
Who are you hoping will be the progressive Democrat that runs in 28 that proves that neoliberal policies are just a thing of the past?
It just seemed like overconfidence to proclaim any sense of achievement in that arena without yet achieving anything or even naming names. I want you to be right, but fascism is very much on the rise and the opposition party isn't doing much to signal any real opposition aside from leaving Texas to withhold quorum for the absurd redistricting vote and I guess not blocking Mamdani from winning the NY mayoral primary.
Just feels a little like Bush's premature Mission Accomplished banner 20 years before giving up and pulling out of the conflict.
It just seemed like overconfidence to proclaim any sense of achievement in that arena without yet achieving anything or even naming names
Tell me who the fastest to run a hypothetical obstacle course that I haven't built yet...
Getting neoliberals out of the DNC leadership was building the course, that was the hard part and something I've wanted for 30 years even tho I was a kid when I started.
That is an absolutely huge win, and it happened about 7 months ago
So fuck yeah, I'm gonna celebrate, I'm gonna be optimistic.
If you don't understand what we did, you'll keep thinking there's no reason to be optimistic.
But if you wait for billionaire media to talk about it in a realistic light, they won't.
Because billionaires lost the party and they don't want anyone to notice so they can take it back.
I'm not gonna stop being proud of what we did because people haven't noticed.
My bad, I didn't know anything had changed recently with the DNC. Idk anything about the new people, but I imagine it must be a good start if you're so excited about it and since the changes all happened pretty much immediately after losing 2024.
Alright, my hope tank just got up to like halfway lol.
Ken Martin is the new chair, and he was chair of Minnesota for the last decade.
It's not that he's a progressive, it's that he has zero bias in the primary and doesn't think a party should meddle.
That's why Minnesota went from purple to solid blue. Where some of the most progressive House members can get elected, and a guy like Walz could be Governor.
Him getting the keys to the DNC is just ridiculously huge for 99.99% of us, it's just the other 0.01% control what gets said in the media, and they want us ignorant
So they could take the opportunity and release the shit and look like the good guys “oh look, we have nothing to hide”…. Instead, they continue with the “whataboutism”, which has only made them look more guilty… they have literally handled it in the worst case possible.
the party is back on the right course for the next presidential.
You really think the next presidential election will be fair? They're already cheating in the midterms!
Is the "they" Republicans?
We'll fight that fight in the general, state by state because the states run general elections.
What's been the problem of the Dem party, is they were rigging primaries so the general doesn't matter.
We can get a popular Dem to the general in 2028, some people that vote in that election might not have ever seen that in their life time. A shit ton haven't been able to vote in a general where the Dem candidate was actually popular.
I think red states that have the numbers to try and cheat in a general. Were already giving all their electoral colleges votes to Republicans anyway.
Isn't Newsom the front runner with Harris ranking high? We haven't learned shit.
This far out it's 100% about name recognition.
Normalize calling them the Trump/Epstein files.
Spread the word and keep this fuckers name right in the demand just like it's right in the files.
Oh now there are new calls, that means they are cooked now for real
I bet that the couch has the files of it's own and guess who's in it?
RELEASE THE COUCH FILES!
Pretty sure the couch was a victim.
THANK YOU President Trump for PROTECTING the Democrat Rapists!
Yea I think this fell through the cracks of "stop covering this in media or I will have this woman write your name on the list"