US politics - fried (part 5)

[alex.f.94]

@wimmera1

Biden is just Shorten writ large

It’s an interesting comparison but one I don’t agree with. On face value maybe you could argue both have personalities or traits inconsistent with obtaining popular support. Yep sure, but the traits are entirely different

While Biden is an old fumbly man, he is seemingly principled and humble. On the other hand, while shorten was young and energetic, he was smug, had significant small man syndrome ,and about as rough around the edges as you could get.

[ROOKIE]

@IceTemple

and even avoid events held after 8pm

im 47 and I support this message

[saladin]

@Riley13w

putting Gretchen Whitmer forward next week. She is extremely well spoken and confident and almost 25 years younger then Trump.

She might also break Trumps brain after their Covid clashes.

[Houli_Dooli]

Americans spend less on groceries than anywhere else in the world.
Approx 6.7% of total income.

[StealthBomber]

@MaxPower

Don’t get me wrong, Biden shouldn’t be running but neither should Trump.

Of course not… Trump should absolutely not be running for anything except prison narc.

Want to talk about mental decline… I’m pretty sure delusion, megalomania, malignant narcissism and seeing yourself as a KING are all pretty good signs of cognitive dysfunction.

Problem is, Trump’s not running against himself.

[alex.f.94]

That’s an interesting stat. What do you take from it?

[Heffsgirl]

Does that include food stamps?

[bigallan]

Domestic food aid ( the other Farm Bill) is significant in the consumption of groceries, fresh, frozen and processed ( all Buy America) . It wouldn’t show up in retail purchases or commercial sales to retail outlets.
Purchases by government per capita - distribution via food stamps - would be significant in total per capita purchasing of groceries.

[Preliminary_Point2]

The stat doesn’t show they spend less. Look at the $ column, they spend $3.3k vs our $3.5k and the UK $2.3k

It’s just that as a % of income it’s lower as they are a very wealthy country.

[tinhillterror]

I’m moving to Venezuela. Eat like a king!!

[Albert_Thurgood]

Very interesting post with some facts about US history I did not know, as well as where this “deep state” BS came from…

This is from Greg Larson on Quora:

• Civil Service

For the first century or so of the Republic, a President’s first task was to hire all the federal employees. Typically, he would fire all the previous President’s employees, and then assign the jobs to the people who helped him get elected. Everybody knew it was a bad system. Everybody could see that it lead to the waste of skills and experience developed on the job, and everybody could see that it wasted the time of the President interviewing all those employees. But nobody could afford to be the first side to give up that sweet, sweet patronage. (I accidentally misspelled that “paytronage”, and almost decided to leave it.) So, everybody wanted the patronage system abolished, as soon as the other party was in power.

Then came Charles Guiteau. He had a very high opinion of himself, which was not borne out by any of the available evidence. He “campaigned” for Garfield, but not in any particularly obvious, or obviously effective way. When Garfield was elected, Guiteau felt that he deserved a big share of the credit, and therefore had earned himself a cushy job as ambassador, or at least consul, to Paris. Garfield’s people basically said, “We don’t know you, go away and stop bothering us.” So Guiteau shot and killed President Garfield.

That assassination shocked both parties to the core, and got them to pass the Pendleton Act, which established the non-partisan Civil Service. Now, the vast majority of federal employees are civil servants, who are hired based on merit. Their jobs are such that it is illegal to hire or fire, promote or demote based on party affiliation or partisan activity. There remain a large number of jobs, mostly at the top of the administrative pyramid, which are still understood to be held by political appointees. These are supposed to be jobs that involve setting policy. Thus, it makes sense for them to be responsive to changes in administration.

What Trump and Project 2025 is proposing to do is not to eliminate thousands of Civil Service jobs, but to reclassify those jobs as political appointee jobs, so that he can fire the non-partisan ones, and replace them with people who are willing to pledge loyalty to him and to his agenda. Those answers that speak approvingly of the reduction in federal Civil Service jobs are missing the point of this exercise.

• Deep State

The phrase “Deep State” entered modern usage as a literal English translation of the Turkish phrase “derin devlet”. Soon after Reccip Tayyip Erdogan was democratically elected President of Turkey (now Tuerkiye), he began consolidating his authority, transforming Tuerkiye from a Constitutional democracy into an authoritarian dictatorship. Frustrated at how the fact that the civil service was insisting on observing the law and the Turkish constitution was slowing down his process toward dictatorship, he started referring to the civil service as the “derin devlit”, or deep state. This had the effect of increasing his popularity among the Turkish “bubbas” (religious extremists, rural and uneducated voters), thereby making it easier for him to flout the law and the constitution in his conflicts with the civil service.

In 2016, Stephen Miller suggested that the Trump campaign should start calling any bureaucratic opposition to Trump’s policies the Deep State. After all, it worked for Erdogan.

But let us not be deceived here. Anybody who is unironicly calling the Civil Service the Deep State is following Tuerkiye’s successful blueprint for instituting a dictatorship in place of a previously functional democracy.

[Bullwinkle]

[Loflyer]

If we can beat a crippled Collingwood, Joe can beat Trump is my analysis. Melbourne will also thump us by 67 points next week, and Joe will front the press pack in his undies.

[Bullwinkle]

Save me Jeebus!

[saladin]

The Lord Almighty might call Joe to him/her

[Riley13w]

It’s Joever if he stays in unfortunately

[StealthBomber]

Yeah that might not be his choice.

[EssendonPride1]

Definitely the right choice of media if he’s trying to make himself clear, we all know he’d have struggled trying to get the words out otherwise.

America officially doomed. Just have to hope the impact can be largely limited to themselves

[bobo]

American officials and politicians and their unending desire to die in office.

[Bacchusfox]

Happens here as well in Local Government, some Councillors are in their eighties.

I got asked yesterday to join a ticket for the next Local Council elections in this November. The Group reckon Council needs more older retired people with lots of spare time to do a good job. They were all over 80.

I told to to find younger people and support them, not sure they will take my advice, and prolly will get elected.