You guys, I have a JOB. Stop being so interesting!
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Try working at a keyboard and becoming really efficient! Downtime galore some days.
In more local news, here are some absurd headlines from our local newspapers that were all bought out by a Soros nonprofit and are paid millions of taxpayer dollars by The State of Maine.
Fair and secure elections are what Putin would do. Real Americans should want a system that enables a tourist from Finland or various socialist shithole countries to easily vote in Maine elections.
Car jumps curb. Nothing to see here, folks.
More than most I would wager. I would not put them all in the genius category or anything, but most are very eloquent and could easily talk circles around the average person.
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I can go with corrupt for sure. I can’t go with incompetent. Anyone spewing that I question their intelligence heavily or that they are letting emotions / dislike for Trump run their logic.
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I would like social security to be optional. I don’t need an entity that can’t form a budget and that is $36 trillion in debt running the world’s largest ponzi scheme while siphoning more money from me.
I am far more capable of planning for my retirement and using that money than it going into an abyss of incompetence run by corrupt sociopaths.
It is hard to be civil to anyone regardless of their political affiliation when they are trying to force their views or deem you evil, racist, bigot, etc. if you don’t agree with them. The void between my views and those I speak about is so large there is no overcoming it. And I will not even waste my time trying.
Otherwise, I pretty much agree with your entire post.
I just want to be left the fuck alone by all parties, if I am not bothering anyone else.
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IMO the problem is deciding for others. I have multiple guns that the typical gun control crowd would love to ban, and it’s none of their business frankly. Then there’s the whole constitution/inalienable rights piece in this specific scenario.
same as abortion. Who decides what is ok, where the limits are and how? Another wrinkle here considering the life being ended, regardless of stage, without a voice. The current narrative is female choice, which is very self-centered considering their body is only 1/3 of the equation and not even weighted for the heaviest consequence in the outcome.
But the general sentiment imo comes from a boomerang effect of pushing principle. To your 2 party question there have always been disagreements but the feel has moved from disagreeing on the best path to common goals (for the most part) to fundamental principle disagreement, and considering political power turning to legal leverage, fighting fire with fire is sort of necessary.
We aren’t a melting pot anymore, but a set of distinct subcultures under one flag.
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Regarding polarization, I think a lot of where we’re at today is due to too many people embracing the notion that compromise should be sought in politics. This begins with a built in assumption that “both sides have good points”, which may have been true at one point, but isn’t today.
If minimalist government is one extreme and abolishing private property, aka communism, is the other extreme, the middle ground of those two ideas is fascism. They didn’t call themselves the “third position” for no reason.
Democratic Socialism is far, far more akin to fascism and National Socialism than American Republican ideas about government, and the comparison isn’t even close. It is no coincidence that the people who call themselves “anti-fascists” are acting like German Brownshirts in the 1920’s.
Maine is governed by gay racist international socialists, and that’s not really much of a rhetorical stretch. They are nothing remotely like the 1990’s Maine Democrats who governed over well-functioning public institutions, led the nation in public education, had some of the lowest violent crime in the developed world while also being very strong on 2nd Amendment rights.
In reality, we’ve got two completely different political parties than we did in the 1990’s, but the Democrats have made the biggest departure from the policies and rhetoric of that time. Republicans are still mostly saying the same things, but we’ve got Trump doing it in all caps on X, several times per day and often in the middle of the night while also hurling insults at his opponents.
I’ve been saying for many years that we’re in a cold civil war, which should be quite apparent to anyone paying attention right now. Hopefully it doesn’t go hot, but if Trump successfully prosecutes names like Clinton or possibly even Obama (unlikely due to immunity), it may very well go hot. Not 1861 hot, but probably more like late 20th century Northern Ireland hot. There’s really nothing left for Democrats to do except ratchet up the rhetoric and ratchet up the violence.
We sure live in interesting times. I just wish it wasn’t so damn expensive, too.
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Whatever fluctuations happened in term one (and who really knows, because trump says his net worth is whatever he thinks it is), which were largely due to market forces, have in my opinion been quite undone by his active grifting and profiteering.
He makes money in all sorts of ways now, Shoe deals , Trump gold coins, Trump Bibles, Trump Phones and phone plans, book royalties, Fragrances, guitars, flags, and even just a genericTrump store that sells anything you might want around the house
Those are pocket change though… You might not have heard about it, but he engaged in a pay-for-access crypto coin this year (with the top spenders being granted a private dinner with him), and sales of the coin itself netted Trump hundreds of millions of dollars. Melania had her own coin too, although no private dinners with that one. The sales of the coin and the stake in the company that sells it is worth $600mil according to his financial disclosure
And Depending on how far removed you want to get, and I figure this is fair game since Hunter Biden is fair game in the world of joe bidens corruption, His son in law netted a $2B deal with the saudis after his time in the white house
I actually dont think Trump does the presidency solely for personal financial gain, but lets not pretend he isnt milking it for that reason as well.
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I’m not liberal, but Texas AG Ken Paxton.
Report: Texas AG Ken Paxton claimed three homes as primary residence - CBS Texas Report: Texas AG Ken Paxton claimed three homes as primary residence - CBS Texas
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He might not be personally incompetent, but his susceptibility to flattery and picking people for roles based on tv appearances has led to him to surround himself with a long history of incompetent people.
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Whatever is going on with that dude is wild. His wife is divorcing him for “biblical reasons” and there is another “person” but not another woman.
To quote a great man “Only steers and queers come from Texas.”
He’s a complete scumbag.
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And I suspect he will be one of our Senator soon enough.
It’s looking that way, for sure.
I agree.
I’d milk the shit out of it too within legal bounds.
He’s definitely taken merchandising to new Presidential heights.
I’d buy a Trump flamethrower.
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A sentiment that I can truly appreciate. 
.
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The real question is this though- is he using the instruments or power of the government to self enrich.
Like, I’m of the belief (backed by a lot of evidence) that the Biden family absolutely did, and Joe’s last act of his presidency- issuing pre-emptive pardons to all involved, was the cherry on top of a great racket of personal enrichment using the government as a personal power source.
If you can point out how Trump is doing that- using our government and its instruments to enrich himself- I’m all ears.
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Having been in the military, and also working as a military contractor - I can tell you that “fraud” has a shitty definition.
At the end of every fiscal year, if there is budget left - we are instructed to buy everything we can - even things we don’t “need” - to ensure the entire budget is used.
In other words, these are items that are generally useful or used, but not necessary.
Why do we do this?
because if the budget isn’t used, it is decreased to the amount that was actually used for future years.
So if the budget was 10,000,000 for this year and we only spend 7,860,000 - our budget for next year and following years will be 7,860,000 (a policy that sounds good, but is massively ineffective).
These otherwise wasteful spending habits are not considered “fraud”.
But we are encouraged to report fraud, should we see it! 
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No. polarization has increased dramatically with the widespread usage of social media (which became monetized in 2012)
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