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We have only one President at a time. Today, that President is NOT Donald Trump. It's not Elon Musk. It is Joe Biden.

I'd love to hear a high ranking Democrat (I'm looking at you, Hakeem) remind Congress of that.

--Peter

We have only one President at a time. Today, that President is NOT Donald Trump. It's not Elon Musk. It is Joe Biden.

Nope, not at all. Face the fact..

“Two bombshell reports out this week, in the New York Times and the Wall Street Journal, depict a president thoroughly out to lunch for his entire term: Top cabinet members unable reach him. Staff regularly taking his place at official events. Biden refusing to hold morning meetings but clocking out at 4pm — even though he naps every day and, in July, announced that he'd no longer hold events after 8pm.”

https://www.dailymail.co.uk/news/article-14211289/...

Joe Biden’s mental decline was obvious from day one, the dems and the MSM covered it up.
There should be an investigation who is responsible for the cover up of Biden’s obvious dementia and face the consequences.

They did basically say, "you reneged on our deal, so go pound sand"...
Alan

Nope, not at all. Face the fact..

No, ma’am. YOU are the one that needs to face the fact. Joe Biden is the President today. And tomorrow. And until noon on January 20, 2025.

I’m not going to argue that he is as sharp as he was 10 years ago. But he’s still the President. Not Trump. Not for another few weeks.

These are the lies that I was talking about to BHM. I’ll give conservative ideas a hearing. Lies will only be met with derision and scorn.

—Peter

No, ma’am. YOU are the one that needs to face the fact. Joe Biden is the President today. And tomorrow. And until noon on January 20, 2025.

Yes, you are correct. In theory Joe Biden is president. In reality he is not. Biden is suffering from dementia or a similar health problem. Joe Biden is nothing more than a puppet and someone else is pulling his strings.

It is not Joe Biden’s declining health that is at fault. The fault lies on those hiding Biden’s declining health and he is not capable of carry out the demanding duties of being President.

Yes, you are correct.

Hey! We're making progress. That's great! You've dropped your own lie and recognized the truth.

In theory Joe Biden is president.

Almost.

It's not theory, it's fact. Joe Biden IS the President of the United States.

In reality he is not.

Back to the lies. But at least its the lies you've been fed by the media you consume, and not your own lies. So -- baby steps.

--Peter

It's not theory, it's fact. Joe Biden IS the President of the United States

Okay, Biden is president, but he is not a functional president.


Back to the lies. But at least it’s the lies you've been fed by the media you consume, and not your own lies. So -- baby steps.

--Peter

Reputable news sources, Obama, Pelosi, Hollywood elites say Biden is in decline. It is why they finally convinced Biden to drop out of running again for president.

I think you also know better, but continue to be a good democrat and deny the obvious.

https://www.wsj.com/politics/biden-white-house-age...

Okay, Biden is president, but he is not a functional president.

And we wonder about Trump - it appears Elon is in charge. Why is that? :)


Was Trump Elon's surrogate all this time? Shock!

And we wonder about Trump - it appears Elon is in charge. Why is that? :)

With the horrible state our Country is in now due to the failed Biden presidency
President Elect Trump welcomes all the help he can get.
Elon Musk’s magnificent background and knowledge, he is a tremendous help not only to
Trump but to America,

President Elect Trump welcomes all the help he can get.

That famous dimlib confusion strikes again. I thought Trump was Totally The Second Coming of SuperHitler. What happened?

That famous dimlib confusion strikes again. I thought Trump was Totally The Second Coming of SuperHitler. What happened?

We haven't got to the part yet where y'all get to go full fascist on us. But I see you are champing at the bits. Just wait.

I thought Trump was Totally The Second Coming of SuperHitler. What happened?

Trump is still not very good at Presidenting. At least, the part of Presidenting that involves the Congress.

That doesn't mean that he won't do terrible things (in the eyes of progressives) with the power will have in the Executive. But one of his flaws in his first term is that he didn't have the skills to manage Congress very well. Which is why his various proposals that required Congress (money for The Wall, repeal and replace of Obamacare, Infrastructure Week) were frustrated.

One key skill of Presidenting is communicating what you want to your Congressional Leaders. If Trump didn't want the bill that Johnson had negotiated with Jeffries to move forward, then the thing to do is tell Johnson that. If he wanted the bill to include provisions on the debt ceiling, then tell Johnson that. Trump's been President-Elect for a month and a half, and this bill has been cooking for even longer - plenty of opportunity to communicate to the Speaker's office if the President has a problem with it.

There's no hint that Johnson had any idea that Trump opposed the bill, or that he wanted the debt ceiling addressed. He went into the beginning of the week thinking this would pass, without objection by Trump. Which is a big part of why this is so messy.

One key skill of Presidenting is communicating what you want to your Congressional Leaders. If Trump didn't want the bill that Johnson had negotiated with Jeffries to move forward, then the thing to do is tell Johnson that.

It's hardly a secret that Trump doesn't want a bill that's going to handcuff his first year, hide documents that he wants exposed, bloats the budget, funds censorship, and adds loads to the debt.

And guess what? It's not a secret that 99% of the GOP caucus doesn't want any of that either. Johnson knows all that.

So why bring that 1,500 page monstrosity up at all? I don't believe this was a serious bill, ever.

It's hardly a secret that Trump doesn't want a bill that's going to handcuff his first year, hide documents that he wants exposed, bloats the budget, funds censorship, and adds loads to the debt.

So what? It was also hardly a secret that Johnson has to get Democratic votes to pass the bill, and that the bill would therefore include some of their priorities. Almost every bipartisan bill is going to include things that the other party might prefer not be in the bill - and omit stuff off the President's wish list.

It's up to Trump to let Johnson know what his priorities are. Does he want the bill to just pass without a whole lot of kerfuffle? Does he want the bill to include a debt ceiling provisions? Does he prefer to suck up the stuff he doesn't like in order to avoid having to spend time and political capital managing a shutdown fight, or does he want Johnson to go in a different direction?

Part of Presidenting is taking an active role in managing that stuff, rather than just leaving other parties to try to guess what you want. If you don't like the way a bill is going, then say something.

So why bring that 1,500 page monstrosity up at all? I don't believe this was a serious bill, ever.

It was dead serious - Johnson went into the week expecting it would pass. Why bring it up? Because the GOP doesn't have enough votes to pass a CR on its own, and needs Democratic votes in the House. Because the Senate is still controlled by the Democrats, so they need Democratic votes in that chamber as well. Because members of their own caucus were insisting that they wouldn't vote for the CR unless it had hurricane and farm provisions. Etc.

If your caucus won't support a clean CR, then you can't pass a clean CR. So you have to cut a deal.

I thought Trump was Totally The Second Coming of SuperHitler. What happened?

Nothing happened. Elonald is on it. “Alles für Deutschland,”


Elon Musk endorses far-right German party: ‘Only the AfD can save Germany’

Musk, who spent hundreds of millions on Trump’s bid to return to the White House, is poised to take a leading role in reshaping the U.S. government. The AfD, which increased its vote share in European Union elections earlier this year, is known in Germany for its embrace of far-right politics, including anti-Muslim rhetoric and a pro-Russian and anti-EU stance. Some of its politicians have also downplayed the Holocaust. A German Jewish leader said the party’s success in the June elections “should give all democratic forces pause.”

German courts have fined one of its leaders, Björn Höcke, multiple times for using the Nazi era phrase, “Alles für Deutschland,” or Everything for Germany.

In the video Musk quoted, the influencer, Naomi Seibt, said that the Christian Democratic Union’s Friedrich Merz had rejected the far-reaching government spending cuts favored by AfD, as well as Argentine President Javier Milei and Musk himself.

https://www.jta.org/2024/12/20/politics/elon-musk-...

So what?

So what? If you know that a bill is extremely toxic and would fail to get a majority of your own caucus, why bring it up at all?

Unless you...wanted it to fail.

Because members of their own caucus were insisting that they wouldn't vote for the CR unless it had hurricane and farm provisions. Etc.

The GOP has been saying 'do clean relief bills and those will pass easily'. If someone was arguing that it all had to be bundled together, let them explain that to North Carolinians.

There's no hint that Johnson had any idea that Trump opposed the bill, or that he wanted the debt ceiling addressed.

To be fair to Trump, he couldn’t have communicated it to Johnson because Trump’s owner, Musk, didn’t tell Trump what he was supposed to think. Trump was waiting for orders from the top.

So what? If you know that a bill is extremely toxic and would fail to get a majority of your own caucus, why bring it up at all?

Unless you...wanted it to fail.

Because it wasn't going to fail. Had Musk not intervened on Wednesday, it would have passed easily. There's plenty of Republicans who would have been perfectly happy to avoid this mess and just get the spending bill done so they could have gone home for the holidays without shutdown chaos.

What possible motive would Johnson have to do any of this if he thought it would fail? They do whip counts, you know.

The GOP has been saying 'do clean relief bills and those will pass easily'. If someone was arguing that it all had to be bundled together, let them explain that to North Carolinians.

No, they haven't been saying that - because they know it's not true. If it were true, then Johnson would have brought a clean relief bill to the floor and passed it easily.

But Johnson knows it can't pass easily. He's got a section of his caucus that won't vote for a clean CR - they won't vote for any CR. There's a section of his caucus that insisted on the disaster relief and the farm relief - several Reps had staked out public positions that they would not vote for a spending measure that didn't include them. So he needs to include them to get votes in his caucus, and he needs to get some Democratic votes. And he can't get Democratic votes without including Democratic priorities.

Because it wasn't going to fail.

Hmmm...so let's ask ourselves why that is. Oh, right - I know. Because it was so filled with loads of things the democrats wanted.

It was a terrible bill.

There's plenty of Republicans who would have been perfectly happy to avoid this mess and just get the spending bill done so they could have gone home for the holidays without shutdown chaos.

And once the details came out they were funding all sorts of nasty things they would have had primary challenges in 2026.

Okay, Biden is president, but he is not a functional president.

You just can't quite get there, can you?

Reputable news sources,

Let's deal with that. You quoted the Wall Street Journal. That rag has fallen very far from its heydays last century. It's now owned by Rupert Murdoch, the same guy who owns Fox News. Murdoch promotes lies that benefit his financial interests and nothing more.

I do not believe a word that comes out of either of these "news" sources. They have both lied too much to be trusted.

I think you also know better, but continue to be a good democrat and deny the obvious.

I've never denied the obvious. What I do object to is making mountains out of molehills. Yes, Biden is not as sharp as he was a decade ago. I've already admitted that. But he is still functioning as President, even if operating at a slower pace. And yes, it was time for him to turn over the reins to someone younger and more fit. For the record, that someone is not Trump. He's just a couple of years younger, and if he doesn't die from a heart attack due to his poor health and diet, he will exceed Biden's age at the end of his term to become the oldest President ever.

As to being a good Democrat, I'm terrible at that. I was a good Republican until the party went BSC, caved in to people with the worst morals ever, and turned the party over to Trump. I switched my party affiliation after the 2016 primaries, and have voted against every Republican on my ballot since then. Note that phrasing carefully - I voted against Republicans, because they were all paying obeisance to Trump and abandoning the party positions that I had known all my life. I don't agree with all of the Democrat's positions, but I vehemently disagree with virtually ALL of the current Republican positions.

I also disagree with the Republicans' current MO of lying constantly about anything and everything - including lying by exaggeration about the Biden's mental acuity. A country cannot stand on lies. The lies will eventually fail and cost the whole country dearly.

But sure, let's keep beating up on Biden because ... ummm ... why again? What purpose does this Biden Bashing serve except to try to raise up Trump, not on his own accomplishments but by denigrating others to make Trump look better than the heap of human garbage that he is?

--Peter

With the horrible state our Country is in now

Yet another lie.

The country is actually in pretty good shape. Economy more or less fully recovered from the shock it suffered during the pandemic. Inflation at bay. Employment at record highs. All under that "failed" Presidency of Joe Biden - or those handling him like a real-life Weekend and Bernie's movie if you want to believe Republican lies.

Most of the "problems" I see Republicans touting - frankly, more like lying about - are made up issues to keep people afraid.

And now that Trump worship is insufficient, you engage in Musk worship, too. Pathetic.

Insert Alpha's stock phrase here.

--Peter

Hmmm...so let's ask ourselves why that is. Oh, right - I know. Because it was so filled with loads of things the democrats wanted.

Right. Because Johnson needed Democratic votes to pass a bill. If you have a dozen or so members of the GOP caucus that refuse on principle to vote for CR's, then you don't have enough votes in your own caucus to keep the government running. Oh, and you also need to get past the Senate, which is still controlled by Democrats. So you need to bargain with the other party.

It's the core fallacy of the hardcore budget base of the party. "I won't vote for anything unless it's a pure fiscally conservative bill that reduces spending" even though the Senate is controlled by Democrats and they have a tiny majority in the House. So then when their Speaker tries to negotiate the bill with the Democrats - which has to happen - they claim he's a RINO. Their own refusal to support something like a clean CR with disaster relief and farm aid ends up hamstringing him in those negotiations (Democrats know he can't pass an alternative with his own caucus to ratchet up the pressure). So they weaken Johnson, then call him a squishy RINO because he can't do the impossible.

So what? If you know that a bill is extremely toxic and would fail to get a majority of your own caucus, why bring it up at all?

Unless you...wanted it to fail.

That's like saying someone wants to fail a confidence vote in parliament. :)

Reputable news sources, Obama, Pelosi, Hollywood elites say Biden is in decline. It is why they finally convinced Biden to drop out of running again for president.


They're still in complete denial that they've been lied to for years. Biden's decline was evident in 2020 when he won. It's gotten worse since then.

Going back to the article I linked yesterday - the real success of the democrat information machine was to get people to accept things that just aren't possible and put enough social pressure on them such that they really don't believe their lyin' eyes anymore.

I won’t go through your whole post except for,

I also disagree with the Republicans' current MO of lying constantly about anything and everything - including lying by exaggeration about the Biden's mental acuity.

Isn’t it amazing though how every one of those right wing conspiracy theories are turning out to be true as to Biden’s declining health and he is incapable to perform the duties as president?

We will soon have the start of 12 years of Trump and Vance to MAGA.

Part of Presidenting is taking an active role in managing that stuff, rather than just leaving other parties to try to guess what you want. If you don't like the way a bill is going, then say something.

The rub is that is antithetical to Trump's way of managing - based on mob management. Never speak plainly. Ever. You always need plausible deniability that will stand up in court. Trump will never, ever take a firm stand on anything except his innocence.

Its one of the many (MANY) things that makes him unsuited to the role of President of the US.

He's taken Truman's "The Buck Stops Here" desk plaque, scratched off the words, tossed it in the fire, and launched the ashes in the trunk of Musk's roadster into space. Probably added a spring loaded launcher to eject them from the trunk at the apogee of the roadster's orbit.

The sign on Trump's desk reads "The buck never made it to my desk. Someone else made that decision, not me."

--Peter

To be fair to Trump, he couldn’t have communicated it to Johnson because Trump’s owner, Musk, didn’t tell Trump what he was supposed to think. Trump was waiting for orders from the top. = AW

==============

Just so I can keep up with the crazy speculation, who gives Trump his marching orders now? Has Musk made a deal with Putin to take over the Trump franchise?

With the horrible state our Country is in now

ptheland reply: Yet another lie.

The country is actually in pretty good shape.

Just wait. I think Trump and his sorry excuse for an executive branch will eff that up.

.....the real success of Trump's WWE/MAGA act is to get people to accept things that just aren't possible, and to put enough pressure on the Republican legislators to go along with his WWE charade that they have to kiss the ring....

Looking forward to $1/dozen eggs, $2/gas, 3% mortgages, cheap comprehensive healthcare, and peace on earth.

'cuz..... Elonald's billionaire club will make it happen.

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