I kind of think if you made your way into Congress you have to be somewhat smart Cushy Job and get rich quick if your on the right committees

I am not sure what point you are making though?

Is it simply some people can say it, thus it is basically a wash?

Like some in the GOP also said 'Obama was a terrorist trying to undermine American democracy in favour of a califate state' and so if people point out that 'Trump was trying to undermine democracy', it is just something that both sides say?

You seem to not be factoring in that it is not just 'taking sides' to say the current GOP base casts baseless aspersions about everyone who is in opposition to them. Thus why Obama and Hilary and every Dem needs to be "locked up" for crimes and why Trump should not be because "they all do that stuff".

Do you see how you are trying in to those arguments?

I am not denying people in the GOP 'call AOC stupid too' when people like MTG and Boebart are laughed at for their ridiculous objectively stupid statements. I am saying you cannot quote AOC, in any way comparable, doing it.

The typical critique you will see by someone calling AOC stupid is something like this "did you hear her say introducing M4A would actually improve things in America... a socialist program would improve things... FLOL what a stupid thing to say. OMG she is just so stupid...'

Those GOP critiquers then 'remember' all the times they 'thought' they caught AOC saying something 'stupid' and think she is constantly saying 'stupid' things when what they have done is labelled any left leaning dogma as stupid and thus simply saying left stuff makes one stupid.

it is NOT the same thing. This is not a 'both sides do it' appropriate argument.

That used to be the case.

I say this intending no hyperbole, when I say now in many parts of America the more ridiculously dumb you are the more that appeals to voters.

I think there are many factors to that. Part is it a fun way to 'own the libz'. 'Haha, try to deal rationally with these people you libz!'.
The next reason is that they have such disdain for authority and expertise and 'smart people' that they think it is time for dumb people, just like them to rule.
And lastly, I think, many of them have just become nihilists who want to see the entire system burn. They initially put in Trump hoping he would tear the entire thing down and that is what they are dong with these increasingly dumb candidates.


I think what many in the GOP see is a changing America (browning) that they just cannot tolerate and they imagine that if they can tear this entire system down whatever emerges from the ashes, even is a dictatorship, will be better for them.

When you see the current slate of GOP primaries the most common thing you see is all the candidates lurching ridiculously, not just to the right, but into the depths of stupidity. Each candidate is honestly trying to say the dumbest most ridiculous thing possible to establish their bona fides for the base, that they have the right stuff to go Congress. That is not a joke.

And I don't know if it is better or worse if they are that dumb naturally or doing it to be duplicitous. Both are very dangerous.

If every developed country agreed to not buy Russian oil unless it is at least a 35% (or some other fairly high number) discount to an agreed upon index of the then current price of oil for a minimum of 10 years starting at the end of the Russian/Ukraine war we could be onto something.

Why do you think Trump is more willing to let the sanctions go than someone else? It seems like Russia was able to flourish under obama by capturing Crimea and they were beneficiaries of obama'a war on oil and natural gas production in the US. Then trump comes in turns on the US oil/gas spigot making the US energy independent and a net exporter of energy which means not only is the US not importing Russian oil, but now Russia is exporting less to other countries that otherwise would buy from Russia. Putin also seemed to cool his jets on plans to take over more of Ukraine until trump was out of office. Then biden comes in and turns off the oil/gas spigot and starts importing more russian oil and (inadvertently?) invites putin to try to take ukraine.

Yeah trump has said some nice things to putin, but through putin's actions it seems like trump is embodying "speak softly and carry a big stick" or maybe it was just the fact that allowing the US to produce energy left Russia without enough money for a war like this. Either way why Russia would prefer Trump over an dem candidate in the last 15 years would be incredible stupid.

LOL. That is a pretty low bar. I would hope oil production would pick up no matter who the president was in the last 20 years. I was referring to the change above/below expected. I hope you aren't suggesting obama or biden anti-fossil fuel policies have no effect on oil production. That would upset me and both of them.

Ya some punitive price could work. It boosts all other countries while punishing Russia.

Trump like credit and Trump likes economic growth. So while he would open up US O&G again, he would also want to remove the depressive effect that Russian sanctions would be having and be seen as the economy building hero.

Plus Trump has no sympathy for Ukraine as he has shown. Putin cooled his jets as Trump had both Rudy and Manfort in Ukraine trying to get Ukraine to buckle to allow the oil interests to be taken over again by the Pro Putin Russian oligarch but with Trump and Rudy cut in this time. That is why Trump was threatening Ukraine with pulling support along with his Hunter stuff.

They were running the same type of full court press that Trump did to Qatar to get them to approve the $1B in loans to Jared as his family empire was about to go bust and Trump turned on our Ally Qatar and was suddenly supporting the idea that 'maybe Saudi Arabia should invade them'. Jared got his loans and then all was good instantly.

Putin wanted NATO and the UN weakened in advance and that and letting Trump rough the Ukrainians up was the plan.

Trump in 2 years would be Russia's dream.

Of course. Putin would love a U.S. president who feels that him invading a peaceful, sovereign nation is genius.

national review

It seems crazy to me that I have never heard of boebert before reading this thread. I think this shows that I don't follow enough non-presidential-hopefuls. Either way, I think if you are looking for the left's version of her you could look to AOC, (the current version of) biden or kamala. All 3 have their own flair on saying stupid ****, but AOC is the only one that is also attractive.

Kamala looks stupid only because she is probably put in tough spots where she knows nothing about a topic and is expected to speak (ex: when she was over in Europe a week or 2 ago talking about rus/ukraine).

Biden looks stupid, but everyone knows that presidential biden isn't the biden that fought his way through the ranks. It is a more sad version of stupid than the funny version we get from boebert, AOC or kamala.

I know you want to brush away AOC's brand of stupid as the only people who think she is stupid are those that disagree with her, but I don't think that is fair. There are only 3 types of people that walk away after hearing her talk about economics: 1) you are confused because you didn't know anything about economics before she started talking and you are still lost 2) you didn't know anything about economics before she started, but now you believe her because you have done 0 other research and she is a decent speaker so you trust her 3) you understand a little about economics and you walk way feeling lied to because everything you know about economics means she contradicted herself a lot. The only other people that hear her talk about economics don't actually walk away from her talking because they blow their brains out to make themselves stop hearing her talk.

No. AOC is one of the most quoted and public people of this age. If she had a tendency to say stupid things we would have endless examples as we do with Trump, MTG and Boebert. And you just do not have that with her. Not in any way that is proportional to how much she speaks, tweets and is quoted.

Almost every time I see the right say she is stupid it is tied to her airing leftist views they believe by default is stupid. So if she says "m4a is good for the people', it is replied to with 'zomg did you hear that stupid thing AOC just said'. "ya she is always saying stupid things'. And so on and so on.

Again I am no fan of hers but she is not a dumb or stupid by any measure. She may end up being one of the smarter and more capable politicians in the party and top leader as she helps manage what I think is an ever more progressive party.

Nobody that says the "Democrat Party" is smart. I'd still **** her though.

I have a better idea.

Rep. Maxine Waters (D-CA) is certainly on the "Dumber than a Box of Rocks" short-list. But maybe I just think that because she can't speak English.

https://mobile.twitter.com/patriotta...55799843139584

lol

I was born in this guys district and spent my early childhood here. I don't think he did it.

Even Elon musk is tweeting that we need to start upping drilling for oil again (like we did were under trump) in the US. I can’t imagine how dumb Biden feels hearing about musk coming to that realization and admitting it in public before Biden did.

You okay with your idol calling Putin smart and genius and apporving of him invading Ukraine?

You okay with Trump literally pulling every lever both legally and illegally to steal the 2020 election and keep himself in power?

You approve of these things mick?

how bout this mick you approve?

Bolton says Trump might have pulled the U.S. out of NATO if he had been reelected
The former national security adviser said Trump came very close to leaving NATO in 2018, and Russian President Vladimir Putin “was waiting for that.”

https://www.washingtonpost.com/polit...een-reelected/

Ukraine isn’t a NATO country. Just sayin.

Biden is the POTUS not Trump.

Your point?

Is NATO without the US a sufficient deterrent to Russia invading a NATO country?

I favor the U.S.A. leaving both NATO and the United Nations.

In my opinion, the U.S.A. shouldn't belong to any organization in which Russia has veto power in the Security Council and that Iraq's vote in the General Assembly has the same weight as the U.S.A.'s

What is your objection to the US being in NATO?

They should put the top 5 countries in terms of GDP on the Security Council, and then rebalance it every 20 years. That would make it: US, China, Japan, Germany, UK. Russia was only on there because of there position after WWII, and France should have never been there in the first place.