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Biden as normalcy (and Trump as time thief)

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There are an assortment of practical reasons for people to cast their 2024 presidential election vote for Joe Biden instead of his uncouth and unhinged challenger, former president Donald Trump.   Biden has done an admirable job of cleaning things up But the biggest one has nothing to do with policy and everything to do with our day to day attention, which was severely strained by Trump's 24/7 news cycle presidency from 2016-2020, and now again due to his ongoing legal peril and his new challenge against Biden. Joseph R. Biden is now an incumbent U.S. president with a number of political wins: a gigantic infrastructure bill an instrumental defense and foreign aid package a resilient economic recovery both during and post-COVID-19 the end to a failed approach against cannabis lowest sustained unemployment in decades ...to say nothing of assisting many social programs that were shuttered, ignored or put under threat by the Trump administration. The biggest reason to vote for Joe Bide
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The Chicken Roost

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As Tuesday turns into Wednesday we head for a break in Donald Trump's election interference and hush money trial in New York after the first two days of testimony and trial proceedings. Not everything can be settled (forever) with payoffs and NDAs Trump has twice called for MAGA to stage rallies outside the courthouse. This afternoon he said that thousands of supporters were being illegally blocked from free assembly by the NY police. No such potential "Trump is Innocent" rallygoers existed. Inside the courtroom were none of his family members, nor any of his supposed friends. Donald Trump's mind exists in a transactional world where every action and every assessment of every person at any given time is a zero-sum, black or white judgement, hinging on "what is immediately best for me, me, me...". And this leaving no room not only for nuance but apparently- shared happiness and love- has left DT alone in a cold New York courtroom while the nation watches his
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The thing about Institutions

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The thing about institutions is that they depend entirely upon the belief and and agreement of the people subjected to the institutions. Take incarceration for example. Without the belief that incarceration is a valid means of punishing peoples' behaviors in the hope of correcting those behaviors or otherwise ensuring those behaviors do not adversely affect the community or state at large, an "arrest" or "conviction" has no real tangible meaning. It is definitely NOT conservative to pass judgements that upend civil society and refuse to prevent violence Sure there are court records and pieces of paper that indicate such-and-such person committed such-and-such crimes and now is going to be punished. But we are relying on people to follow a certain set of instructions required to make the arrest or conviction "real". We need judges, law enforcement officers and correctional officers to physically remove the arrested and convicted from free life and to pl
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The opening ding

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The upcoming election this November will have ramifications that go far beyond liberal and conservative politics. Should Trump win, as he unexpectedly did in 2016 (with a late Hail Mary pass from his foreign agent friends), he will certainly move to vacate all of his (soon-to-be) criminal convictions, and will not cede power until he dies. If you think otherwise you have not been paying attention and do not understand Donald Trump. It took an insurrection to get him to leave the White House last time. He will most certainly use military and law enforcement to make sure he doesn't have to worry about the Electoral College, Democracy in general or any kind of law enforcement guardrails next time. Trump's historic idols are Hitler, Mussolini and Roy Cohen. His modern idols are Vladimir Putin, Kim Jong Un, Victor Orban and MBS. And of course there is his late best friend, Jeffery Epstein. 👀 What a cast of "heroes", huh? We are known by the company we keep Do you want you
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