Cont: The Biden Presidency (4)

[ChrisBFRPKY]

This sentiment is mostly revealing about you, not Biden.

As in the famous trick question for politicians:" if someone raped your daughter, would you not want that person killed quickly and mercilessly, instead of giving them endless time in prison, legal support, chance for parole and early release?"

And the answer is:" of course I would, which is why I don't get to make that decision, a judge and jury are; I'm too close to the case".
Same with a Catholic in the White House and abortion: he can be personally against it, but as he is the President of everyone, not just anti-abortion Catholics, he doesn't get to make that decision, Congress is.

Only a Trump Type thinks that everyone will want what they want, so they should be able to do whatever they want.

That's mostly why I come here, for the free psychic readings. Thanks.

 

[The Great Zaganza]

That's mostly why I come here, for the free psychic readings. Thanks.

Ah, the old "we don't get to judge Trump by what he says" argument applied to yourself.

A little heads-up: I will absolutely judge you by what you say (as this is the only information channel I have from you), and you are being childish for thinking that's unfair or unwarranted.

 

[dirtywick]

So, Russia isn't nearly as powerful as it's Soviet predecessor, but will win in Ukraine after spinning it's wheels for two years, even after the US military gets directly involved?

On top of this, Trump will somehow end the war peacefully? What exactly do you think he will do? Trump is Vlad's lapdog, not the other way around.

Also, the "Democrat endless wars philosophy?" I'm not going to claim that Obama did anything to help get us out of any wars, but do you happen to remember who got us involved in Iraq and Afghanistan to begin with?

must not have been paying attention when he wrote that russia is both powerful enough for ukraine not to have a chance and can even defeat the us and ukraine, but also not a credible threat to europe. and only trump can fix it, the guy who poops his pants in his sleep in court.

 

[gnome]

Russia still has nuclear weapons. More importantly Russia has Putin in charge of those weapons. If the Kremlin was in danger of being captured by Ukranian forces would Putin launch? What do you think? I think he would.

Ukraine doesn't need to take Moscow to prevail in the current conflict. They need to make occupying Ukraine so painful and expensive that Russia exits.

 

[Gulliver Foyle]

What are these supposed illegal materials? From what I can tell, Hunter Biden has done a pretty good job of incriminating himself over various media. No conspiracy is required.

Burisma and documents"proving" the Bidens were engaged with criminal acts. Repugs were all over it until investigators came out and said there was no way it was on the hard drive when Hunter Biden had possession.

I also recall that there was a push to allege child porn was also found but can't find anything with my google fu to back that up.

 

[acbytesla]

Biden claims he is a Catholic that supports and condones abortion. If true, that seems to be at odds with the religious view of the Catholic Church. It's merely a testament of his character whether he actually follows the religion he claims to practice or not. A Catholic that supports abortion is akin to a follower of the Hindu religion that supports lunch at Arby's.

I don't know why you would bring up Trump in this thread, but it's a fair point and you may be surprised to find that I would argue Donald Trump does NOT follow any religion whatsoever and his claims otherwise would be akin to Biden's as being Catholic. (Unless perhaps one could make a case for Populism as a religion these days then yea, Trump fits)

The problem is since we can't know the personal thoughts of either man, we can't argue what we don't know. We can argue on what we see and what has been demonstrated. Trump does align with certain family value goals and his pro-Life, anti-woke "policy stance" rings true with many on the Right. Which is likely the reason several Christian religious groups support him. In truth neither candidate appears to align with religion in their personal lives and such claims are only intended to garner VOTES.

To begin with, one can disagree with Catholic doctrine and still be a Catholic. The vast majority of Catholics supports birth control and the Catholic Church is against it in all of its forms.

The same thing is true with being Christian. Jimmy Carter was pro-choice and was easily the most Christian man I have ever met. He taught Sunday School, wrote multiple books on faith. There are lots of Catholics and evangelical Christians that are pro-choice. It's actually easy to argue with scripture that Christianity does NOT have a prohibition against abortion. The argument that pro-choice Catholics or Christians are "so called" is both dishonest and arrogant.

I'm pro-choice and pro family values. I don't think hate and anti-freedom are family values.

 

[Aridas]

One would have to be the King of Fools to believe Ukraine could in any way defeat Russia,

If they were alone, that would be more meaningful. I'm reminded of the start of the invasion, though, with the widespread expectations that Ukraine would fall quickly to Russia's overwhelming might and the world's largest insurgency would begin.

That never happened, because Ukraine didn't break and successfully defeated Russia on multiple fronts even before more notable aid arrived from the US and Europe. For that matter, even if Ukraine were to crumble tomorrow and Russia take official control of that land, Russia would still have lost to Ukraine in a bunch of ways.

Surrender monkey.

a nuclear power with Putin's finger on the button.

Which Putin would be an idiot to use. Putin has many problems, but I don't normally consider him an idiot. Do you?

The Russia/Ukraine conflict will either end with negotiation

Ending with negotiation would be nice and all. Russia is the main obstacle there, though. Russia's focus with "negotiations" is to further their goal of conquering/controlling Ukraine. Ukraine's focus is actual peace and freedom from Russia's yoke.

or continue with US Troops on the ground, then end in Russian victory after several years of US losses.

And your basis for this is? Russia's brought the full force of its military that it can to bear against Ukraine. Ukraine's caused massive damage to it with its stout defense.

US Troops on the ground is a supposition about as meaningful as it has been since the beginning. There's not much good reason to believe that it'll happen absent Russia directly provoking such (which Russia absolutely doesn't want to do), but it is possible.

The more the US gets involved the likelihood increases that Russia will bring the war closer to US soil. No thanks.

The less the US gets involved, the more likely that Russia would be emboldened to do that anyways. Being a surrender monkey in front of those who would prefer to effectively enslave you is an invitation for them to take action, after all.

Fear sells and the Democrat Party is great at furthering their agenda by selling fear to promote it.

Interestingly enough, there's something very, very important to note here. It's true that both the Republican and Democratic Parties sell fear. There's a very profound difference, though, after that superficial similarity. The Democratic Party sells fear that's well founded in reality and tends to try to take action to actually solve the things that are causing the fear. The Republican Party often manufactures unreasonable fears with little basis in reality and acts to make it worse while only pretending to address such. This has become ever more common in recent years as more and more of the Republican Party have been ignoring the responsibility of governance in favor of pushing manufactured culture wars.

The fact is the USSR was a heavy hitting Communist Regime back in the day, but they were defeated by Republican policy decades ago.

Not the policies of today's Republican Party, though, of course.

Russia is no longer the USSR and no longer a credible threat to Europe. In fact 3 of the 50 US states have a larger GDP than Russia. (Look it up)

Yet, you would still contend that an incredibly weakened Russia would defeat the US in a battle for a relatively small area? It'd be entirely plausible for the US to lose if they sought to conquer Russia as whole by force. Pushing an already greatly crippled Russia back to the official borderlines while being aided by the locals, though, is a very different story, and one that would be quite doable for the US. Supposing that a fresh US would fail to accomplish a distinctly limited objective with significant help from the locals against a severely weakened and exhausted Russia, despite the US having major military advantages is a testament to how highly you seem to regard Russia's military capabilities and how low your view of the US is.

So, Political posturing and warmongering are on the ballot. Can Biden end these wars with negotiation? Has he tried? How many calls or visits has he made to speak with Putin? Any? Is the word "Don't" a viable foreign policy?

For negotiations to work, there needs to be room for negotiations. For smaller things like PoW exchanges, there is room for negotiations. On the larger scale? As noted earlier in the post - Russia's focus with "negotiations" is to further their goal of conquering/controlling Ukraine. Ukraine's focus is actual peace and freedom from Russia's yoke. So long as Russia makes it perfectly clear that they have no intention of negotiating for actual peace, as they continue to do, the only viable option for the people who actually desire peace is to work to strengthen Ukraine's negotiating positions and weaken Russia's negotiating position. Unfortunately, that involves military force, because Russia's using military force as their primary negotiating tool.

So far, what you've advocated for is NOT peace. It's unnecessary surrender to oppression, exploitation, and genocide. It's rewarding bad behavior in ways that make that bad behavior more likely.

If we're going to share opinions, I believe you fear that Trump will end these conflicts without furthering war.

Talk about a grain of truth wrapped in BS.

In a rather twisted way, you're correct. I do fear that Trump will seek to end this particular one in problematic ways that just happen to not further this part of this war. If it were just that, it'd be a good thing, though. I have no love of war, after all. Rather, it's the aftermath that I fear. Trump's ways of seeking to end this war do far more to encourage more and worse wars and injustices, including when it comes to Russia attacking Ukraine again, than continuing to give the Ukrainians the tools they need to defend themselves against tyranny will ever do.

Trump will further demonstrate the Democrat endless wars philosophy is needlessly destroying the World

The selective blindness required to say "Democrat endless wars philosophy" would need to be rather debilitating. At this point, broadly speaking, Republicans have long been the party pushing the use of our military and might to gain national advantages, even when such is unprincipled. Democrats have long desired that our military usage be more restrained and used to uphold American interests only when it can be done while being in line with the higher principles to which we as a country aspire.

With that said, it's perhaps worth noting that the US has officially been at war with one or more nations for something like 230 out of its less than 250 years of its existence. What issues there are there have far less to do with any particular political party than war's nature as a tool to seek to gain various advantages, the willingness of many to use it, and the necessity to defend by those it's used against. War is horrible. That doesn't mean that fighting in a war is inherently wrong.

needlessly killing hundreds of thousands, if not millions of people.

Ya know, when you keep siding with the side of the conflict that repeatedly and openly calls for mass genocide of innocents and has spent a remarkable amount of military force specifically to harass and murder innocents, your "concern" seems like it's only actually with the deaths of the invading Russians.

Russia still has nuclear weapons. More importantly Russia has Putin in charge of those weapons. If the Kremlin was in danger of being captured by Ukranian forces would Putin launch? What do you think? I think he would.

That's quite the interesting hypothetical, not least because of how much it resembles DARVO.

Russia is the one invading Ukraine. Ukraine is fighting to uphold their official borders. Further, so very much military support for Ukraine is conditional on the premise that the support will NOT be used to invade Russia.

Why does the Media kill any story related to the Ukrainian Nazi problem?

Your premise is false. Stories about Ukrainian Nazis aren't killed. They're just not particularly catchy or interesting. They're also greeted with eye rolls because of the larger situation. For American citizens, the US' and Russia's issues with fascists are far more of note right now, quite frankly. The US' problems are obviously of more immediate interest and when the political party with a nasty fascist problem close ranks rather than address the issue, their "concern" quite seems to have little to do with actually opposing fascism. With Russia, of course, it's just been brazen hypocrisy and BS all along, as they celebrate and reward actual Nazis for committing atrocities. Going along with their pretenses and lies like they aren't transparent isn't some praiseworthy thing.

Granted it may not be as much of a big deal as Putin portrays it to be, but it is a thing and one should NOT ignore it.

Just because a problem exists, period, doesn't mean that it deserves the attention that certain parties that are motivated to smear others would give it. Ukraine's problems with fascists, like every country's problems with fascists, do deserve attention and addressing. It's pretty friggin' low on the priority list there, though, compared to everything else... especially when, in actual usage, "Nazi" is largely being conflated with "anti-Russia," given the actual circumstances in play. Someone's strongly against Russia as Russia invades their country and seeks to commit genocide against their people? They're a Nazi, by the standards used by certain groups that seek to harm Ukraine.



A separate thought, though, in a slightly different direction. Think for a while on about how much you'd like to live in the world envisioned and fought for by the (actual) far left and the far right.

As a general rule, the far left has a bunch of serious practical issues that would need to be overcome to make the world they envision into reality. The world that they envision is a beautiful one, though, with decency, respect, and needs fulfilled for all.

As a general rule, the far right doesn't have much in the way of practical issues to overcome. The world that they fight for is pretty inevitably a truly horrible one for an overwhelming share of the population, though.

 

[acbytesla]

Trump does align with certain family value goals and his pro-Life, anti-woke "policy stance" rings true with many on the Right. Which is likely the reason several Christian religious groups support him. In truth neither candidate appears to align with religion in their personal lives and such claims are only intended to garner VOTES.

Total nonsense. Trump has spent a lifetime whoring around. A reputation he actually cultivated before getting involved in politics. Married three times and cheated on every single wife.

Trump is an inveterate liar. Trump lies daily and has no shame. He is a thief and a brazen con-man. Something I think most religious charlatans probably admire. He's vengeful and full of hate. I always thought Christian values were love and forgiveness? Trump doesn't read the Bible or attend church regularly.
He's less of a Christian than I am and I think religion in every form I've investigated is a crock.

In contrast, Biden has been a regularly attending mass his entire life.
Biden is kind and generally honest. Never divorced. A true family man.

Questioning Biden's religiosity is projection.

 

[W.D.Clinger]

Russia is no longer the USSR and no longer a credible threat to Europe.

Ukraine is a country in Eastern Europe.​

 

[The Great Zaganza]

Ah, Family Values.
A completely empty term everyone can chose to mean whatever they want.
Even claim that Trump, habitual adulterer and guy who brags about the breast size of his daughter has them.

 

[Aridas]

Questioning Biden's religiosity is projection.

In this case, I don't think that projection is supported here by the context. To add a quibble, questioning Biden's religiosity is fine, regardless. Denying it is without merit, though.

I'm reminded of the last time a co-worker invoked the Bible to try to support Trump and oppose Biden, either way. I went ahead and looked up what he cited as part of standard verification. What I found was a passage that specifically tells Christians to have nothing to do with people who are...

lovers of themselves, lovers of money, boastful, proud, abusive, disobedient to their parents, ungrateful, unholy, without love, unforgiving, slanderous, without self-control, brutal, not lovers of the good, treacherous, rash, conceited, lovers of pleasure rather than lovers of God

Given that Trump is openly an exemplar of most of those traits and has demonstrated even more, it's entirely fair to say that the Bible itself almost presciently tells Christians that they should have nothing to do with Trump and certainly that they should not support Trump. The rest of the co-worker's arguments were little better, incidentally.

 

[acbytesla]

In this case, I don't think that projection is supported here by the context. To add a quibble, questioning Biden's religiosity is fine, regardless. Denying it is without merit, though.

I'm reminded of the last time a co-worker invoked the Bible to try to support Trump and oppose Biden, either way. I went ahead and looked up what he cited as part of standard verification. What I found was a passage that specifically tells Christians to have nothing to do with people who are...

Given that Trump is openly an exemplar of most of those traits and has demonstrated even more, it's entirely fair to say that the Bible itself almost presciently tells Christians that they should have nothing to do with Trump and certainly that they should not support Trump. The rest of the co-worker's arguments were little better, incidentally.

I have heard Christians questioning the faith of other Christians countless times. Catholics questioning Protestants, Protestants questioning Catholics as well as other denominations. It almost seems to be some of their favorite pastimes.

As a former Christian I despised this judgmental attitude. Chris first suggests the Biden is not an actual Christian referring to him as a "so called Christian." And I immediately think of the no true Scotsman Fallacy.

There are over 200 Christian denominations in the US and over 45 thousand denominations worldwide. Who's to say who is a Christian?

I was taught the Lord hates a fork tongue. Here's a short list of why Trump should be a problem for Christians.

• “ ‘Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another." Leviticus
• " I hate and detest falsehood" Psalms
• "The lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy." Proverbs
• "The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.' Proverbs
• Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Revelation

I cannot say whether Biden or Trump has accepted Jesus as their savior. But I can say unequivocally that Biden practices the teachings of Jesus and Trump does not. Biden treats others with love, kindness and grace. Whereas almost ever word from Trump is self centered, hateful and dishonest.

Trump may in fact be a Christian. But he acts less like a Christian than any human ever.

 

[Stacyhs]

Biden claims he is a Catholic that supports and condones abortion. If true, that seems to be at odds with the religious view of the Catholic Church. It's merely a testament of his character whether he actually follows the religion he claims to practice or not. A Catholic that supports abortion is akin to a follower of the Hindu religion that supports lunch at Arby's.

As already correctly stated, Biden's personal, religious views on abortion do not dictate Democratic policy. He is a Democrat and the Democratic Party's official platform on abortion is:

"Democrats are committed to protecting and advancing reproductive health, rights, and justice. We believe unequivocally, like the majority of Americans, that every woman should be able to access high-quality reproductive health care services, including safe and legal abortion."

The President's personal views on any matter do not decide Party Policy. If they did, then s/he would be a dictator.

I don't know why you would bring up Trump in this thread, but it's a fair point and you may be surprised to find that I would argue Donald Trump does NOT follow any religion whatsoever and his claims otherwise would be akin to Biden's as being Catholic. (Unless perhaps one could make a case for Populism as a religion these days then yea, Trump fits)

I already told you why I brought him up: "My advice, Chris, is don't criticize Biden's faith when you support Trump whose only faith is power and money and the only God he prays to is himself. It doesn't work for you."

The problem is since we can't know the personal thoughts of either man, we can't argue what we don't know. We can argue on what we see and what has been demonstrated. Trump does align with certain family value goals and his pro-Life, anti-woke "policy stance" rings true with many on the Right. Which is likely the reason several Christian religious groups support him. In truth neither candidate appears to align with religion in their personal lives and such claims are only intended to garner VOTES.

We know what they say and what they do. For example, does Trump really "align with certain family value goals"?
Is a "family value goal" repeatedly committing adultery over three marriages?
Is a "family value goal" lying to the point of pathology?
Is a "family value goal" sexually abusing women and bragging how you can grab them by the ***** because you're famous?
Is a "family value goal" cheating on your taxes?
Is a "family value goal" committing 34 felonies?
Is a "family value goal" trying to overturn an election because you can't
handle losing?

In a June 8, 2024 Vanity Fair article, "A Tale of Two Trials: Biden’s Family Values vs. Trump’s" Republican and Biden critic, Mark McKinnon, wrote:

Republicans love to talk about family values. But if the outcome of this coming election were to turn on the question of which candidate genuinely values family, the verdict would be unanimous.

That unanimous vote would be for BIDEN.

Is Trump really "pro-life" or is he pro-life when it suits his agenda? From "15 times Trump’s abortion position shifted over the past 25 years

October 24, 1999:
“I’m very pro-choice. I hate the concept of abortion. But still, I just believe in choice.”

March 30, 2016:
Trump: “There has to be some form of punishment."
Chris Matthews: “For the woman?”
Trump “Yes.”

Later the same day: “This issue is unclear and should be put back to the states.”

Still later the same day: “If Congress were to pass legislation making abortion illegal and the federal courts upheld this legislation, or any state were permitted to ban abortion under state and federal law, the doctor or any other person performing this illegal act upon a woman would be held legally responsible, not the woman. The woman is a victim in this case as is the life in her womb.”

October 19, 2016
“Well, if we put another two or perhaps three justices on, that will happen. That will happen automatically in my opinion because I am putting pro-life justices on the court,” Trump said. “I will say this: it will go back to the states and the states will then make a determination.”


January 23, 2017
In one of his first acts as president, Trump signed a memorandum blocking the United States from funding organizations that provide abortion services, including counseling.

January 24, 2020
Trump promises to “veto any legislation that weakens pro-life policies or that encourages the destruction of human life.”

And there are more times his "policy" changes whenever it fits his agenda. You earlier claimed that Democrats have short memories. I say Republicans not only have short memories, they have selective memories.

 

[Stacyhs]

I would suggest the more accurate statement would be "The Democrats need a candidate." You can't actually tie Biden's failures and age related decline to any plot designed by Putin. Biden is simply getting older and more people realize a vote for Biden is in reality a vote for Kamala Harris.

I'd take Kamala Harris over twice-impeached, 89 times indicted, sexual abuser, 34X convicted felon Donald Trump any time!

 

[Stacyhs]

I have heard Christians questioning the faith of other Christians countless times. Catholics questioning Protestants, Protestants questioning Catholics as well as other denominations. It almost seems to be some of their favorite pastimes.

As a former Christian I despised this judgmental attitude. Chris first suggests the Biden is not an actual Christian referring to him as a "so called Christian." And I immediately think of the no true Scotsman Fallacy.

There are over 200 Christian denominations in the US and over 45 thousand denominations worldwide. Who's to say who is a Christian?

I was taught the Lord hates a fork tongue. Here's a short list of why Trump should be a problem for Christians.

• “ ‘Do not steal. “ ‘Do not lie. “ ‘Do not deceive one another." Leviticus
• " I hate and detest falsehood" Psalms
• "The lord detests lying lips, but he delights in people who are trustworthy." Proverbs
• "The righteous hate what is false, but the wicked make themselves a stench and bring shame on themselves.' Proverbs
• Outside are the dogs, those who practice magic arts, the sexually immoral, the murderers, the idolaters and everyone who loves and practices falsehood. Revelation

I cannot say whether Biden or Trump has accepted Jesus as their savior. But I can say unequivocally that Biden practices the teachings of Jesus and Trump does not. Biden treats others with love, kindness and grace. Whereas almost ever word from Trump is self centered, hateful and dishonest.

Trump may in fact be a Christian. But he acts less like a Christian than any human ever.

He's a CINO.

 

[ChrisBFRPKY]

Snipped

Not the policies of today's Republican Party, though, of course.

Ya know, when you keep siding with the side of the conflict that repeatedly and openly calls for mass genocide of innocents

Today's Republican Party policy is exactly the same as the policies that destroyed the Soviet Union in the 1980's. Strong Military = Peace thru strength, tax cuts = economic growth and prosperity. Family values = promoting lasting marriages so children grow up with a Mom and a Dad. Pro-Life. It's almost as if Reagan had risen from the grave and he's on steroids. (The policies only, not Trump the man. Reagan was actually a good and decent man.)

Yeah I wouldn't side with those that openly call for or promote genocide. Never have and never will. I side with peace thru strength, something we don't seem to have now.

My compliments on voicing your two cents without drama in the snipped parts. Well done.

 

[Stacyhs]

Today's Republican Party policy is exactly the same as the policies that destroyed the Soviet Union in the 1980's. Strong Military = Peace thru strength, tax cuts = economic growth and prosperity. Family values = promoting lasting marriages so children grow up with a Mom and a Dad. Pro-Life. It's almost as if Reagan had risen from the grave and he's on steroids. (The policies only, not Trump the man. Reagan was actually a good and decent man.)

Yeah I wouldn't side with those that openly call for or promote genocide. Never have and never will. I side with peace thru strength, something we don't seem to have now.

My compliments on voicing your two cents without drama in the snipped parts. Well done.

Oh, Chris...you do make me chuckle sometimes. It's either laugh or cry.

 

[ChrisBFRPKY]

Oh, Chris...you do make me chuckle sometimes. It's either laugh or cry.

I left out Roe vs Wade had been overturned. So actually today's Republican Party is definitely stronger than it was under Reagan.

Laughter is good for the Soul, save the tears, you may need them.

 

[Mike!]

Today's republican party has no policies whatsoever. The fact that their policy is, no written policy, is no big secret.

 

[Stacyhs]

I left out Roe vs Wade had been overturned. So actually today's Republican Party is definitely stronger more dangerous to our democracy than it was under Reagan.

Like I said, read the article as I left out several due to length. Oh, and FTFY.

Laughter is good for the Soul, save the tears, you may need them.

True, I just may need them. Depends on if 34X convicted Felon Donald "Sane Genius" Trump gets enough authoritarian loving cultists to vote for him.