:rofl: Another conflicted true believer.

Springfield is close to where I am currently residing... many around here believe the immigrant invasion propaganda, regardless of what's happening. Get enough people saying the same thing and you'll end up with commonly held belief. Sad.

These efforts are a far cry from the work of 9/11 and 1/6. — Paine

Yes the thought occurred that if a professional had been involved, DJT would have been long gone. But many of the usual suspects would rather see him prevail.

When I'm talking about 'the establishment', what I'm talking about are for example the foreign policy establishment, aka 'the Blob', the neocons, etc. - the people who run the country regardless of who is president.

My sense is that we're talking past each other, but if you're interested in what I'm talking about here's a lecture by John Measheimer explaining in detail. Relevant timestamps are in the description.

Or if you're looking for something recent, here's a panel discussion with Jeffrey Sachs and Mearsheimer discussing American (geo)politics, the 'uniparty', 'the Blob', etc.

I simply don't view any of the mainstream news outlets in the Netherlands as trustworthy information brokers. They all seem bought and paid for, and towing the line for some interest or another. That's why I don't really see the point of a 'left/right' distinction.

Well, you'll like FTM then which is fully funded by subscriptions and gifts and under complete direction of two journalists.

Thanks for the tip. I've heard of them, but never actually visited their website. I'm going to check that out.

Look at this from NBC:

Trump dispenses with unity and blames Democrats after apparent second assassination attempt

Former President Donald Trump and his allies are fanning political flames after his Secret Service detail thwarted what is, according to the FBI, the apparent second attempt to assassinate him in less than 10 weeks.

In a message posted to multiple social media platforms Monday, Trump accused his opponent, Vice President Kamala Harris, and President Joe Biden of taking "politics in our Country to a whole new level of Hatred." He said their rhetoric is responsible for threats and violence against him, even though they routinely denounce political violence and did so on Sunday.

https://www.nbcnews.com/news/amp/rcna171218

Not a day has gone by where Trump hasn’t been vilified, so this comes off as quite silly. What’s worse, he has been portrayed as some sorcerer capable of dividing the country, stoking tensions, “fanning political flames”, and increasing the threat of violence with his words and tweets. Meanwhile the entire media industrial complex, his opponents, including the Whitehouse, all of whom have far greater power and reach, are completely innocent.

It's a good tactic now that he's behind. Not so sure about the Taylor Swift thing as a strategy--although the media outrage concerning his dislike of a spoilt superstar while they happily support Biden's (albeit indirect) mass killing of citizens in Gaza does confirm yet again that the establishment is morally insane.

Most people cannot escape tribalism, which all this is.

Yeah, tribalism is the moral equivalent of burning your eyes out with a hot poker and then insisting you drive a racecar.

McClown is calling Harris "Marxist" "Communist" whatever, which is just more lying, but I'm sure it'll catch on somewhere.
As far as I can tell, Swift has supported worthwhile projects and given/donated substantially more to charities/goodwill than McClown; happy to be proven wrong.
I sure hope McClown's supporters are upfront with the kids of the US about who they're supporting, especially the Evangelicals and conservative Christians.

McClown is calling Harris "Marxist" — jorndoe

It's funny how in the upside-down world of 'Murica, that's meant to be an insult. Although, it is in a way. To any self-respecting Marxist.

Is this affidavit real? Russian disinfo? A scam on gullible Trump supporters?

This account says he has procured a sworn affidavit from an ABC whistleblower that they rigged the last debate, up to and including working with the Kamala campaign to taylor the event in her favor.

I was pretty certain during the debate that it was rigged, but I don’t believe the affidavit. Although, it isn’t completely out of the ordinary for those wedded to the establishment to rig these sorts of things. Recall in 2016 when a CNN and DNC apparatchik gave Hillary Clinton the questions before a townhall. The J6 inquiry hired the president of ABC to turn their inquiry into mind-numbing propaganda. The DNC emails (which have gone missing from Wikileaks since Assange’s release) revealed the incestuous relationship between the DNC and the press.

Sounds cool. How did they force Trump make a fool of himself and talk about immigrants eating pets and stuff? Special drugs or?

Kamala is an empty suit. A power seeking zombie with zero principles except her own aggrandisement. There are so many ways to undermine her that these conspiracy theory hoaxes start to look like the work of the DNC to distract from anything that might actually be effective against her.

, looks like a red scare move/redux by lying.

Actually, just seen elsewhere, I quote (verbatim):

Harris is the child of a Marxist. Have checked out her dad’s book? She is a Marxist. — Sep 16, 2024

So, McClown's lying has caught on.

Sure, my point was just that McAmerica as a whole is the real clown here because the whole thing demonstrates that almost nobody over there knows what the word even means.

@NOS4A2

Here's a suggestion for Kamala's detractors: rather than falsely pin her to an ideology that suggests she actually believes in something, point out the fact that she has no solid policies at all, that e.g. her website is a bunch of gobbledeygook, a Rorshach blot of cliches designed so that any vague bullshit can be read into it. She is horribly and fatally scared of committing herself to anything other than being Not Trump and her ultimate faith is in the stupidity of the opposition in not realizing and exploiting that, but rather focusing on easily rebutted insults that harm their sources more than her. She was laughing at the debate and she'll laugh her way right into the presidency if the dummies on the other side keep going the way their going.

The whole optics thing is quite funny, that she needs a smaller podium so she doesn’t appear nearly a foot shorter than her opponent. So they actually made her a smaller podium. And this appears to be true given the size of the video framing in which she did her cringy gesticulations. Man, political theater is so interesting.

I know you don’t catch any US political ads over there but they are at least hitting her on those angles in adverts. But the Trump campaign doesn’t have the reach the Harris campaign has, what with the media, the government, and Hollywood backing her, so I fear it is an uphill battle.

they are at least hitting her on those angles in adverts. — NOS4A2

Good. She's just another Obama, a brand, though a less polished one. To say the very least, she doesn't deserve to waltz into the most powerful job on earth on the basis that she smiles a lot and isn't a big meanie like DJT.

:up:

Well, she’s been in the second-most powerful position for a few years now and has absolutely nothing to show for it. I’m banking on people realizing that.

We're not talking past each other, it just seems that for whatever reason you're refusing to argue how Trump is anti-establishment. Measheimer doesn't see him as anti-establishment.

Oh wait, did Trump say that he's anti-establishment and you believe him?

Measheimer doesn't see him as anti-establishment. — praxis

Question: John, what's your thought on that. Do you see any difference between Republicans and Democrats?

Answer: No. I like to refer to the Republicans and the Democrats as Tweedle-dee and Tweedle-dum.

There's hardly any difference. I actually think the one exception is that former president Trump when he became president in 2017 was bent on beating back the deep state and becoming a different kind of leader on the foreign policy front, but he basically failed.

And he has vowed that if he gets elected this time it will be different and he will beat back the deep state and he will pursue a foreign policy that's fundamentally different than the Republicans and the Democrats have pursued up to now. — Literally the first minutes of the discussion

Alright. Done wasting my time on you. You're obviously here begging for some kind of argument in which you can paint me as a Trump lover. Go take a hike, you lazy child.

Why would I care if you’re a Trump lover, you can’t vote for him?

You forgot to include the part where Measheimer says “I bet against Trump” pushing back on the deep state.

You must understand that Trump makes all sorts of promises that he has no intention of fulfilling. If the establishment is all about pursuing regional hegemony why would Trump be opposed to that pursuit? We know that if there’s one thing he values it is power.

What kind of a clown are you? Mearsheimer states verbatim he believes Trump is running against the deep state.

The level of dishonesty with you is off the charts.

The level of dishonesty with you is off the charts. — Tzeentch

Uh, what??? You just lied about what Mearsheimer said. Nowhere does he say that he believes Trump is running against the deep state. If you mean running as a candidate who promises to push back on the establishment then sure. That promise may have helped him get elected in 2016. Did he fail while in office or did he not actually try?

The deep state is the atheist's substitute for God. What would be unbearable would be to accept that no one is in control at all. There are just a bunch of crazies all trying to be tin pot gods and get above each other, and fucking each other and us over as much as they can.

I see it as a device to reduce agency to a play of puppets. The puppet masters cannot be seen directly but they are responsible for all you do encounter. When someone seems to be speaking for themselves, they never are. Unless, of course, the speaker is one of the vanguards pointing this situation out.

Within this framework, there is no possibility of being corrected.