2026 Mid-Term Elections

[Elixir]

“He [Mamdani] will learn over time that growing a tax base is a winner and raising taxes is a loser … and that the hard-working 1% are allies, not enemies.”

IOW “he will learn that we can elect him or un-elect him because we can out-spend him every time.”

 

[Toni]

Now, many more young people know people of Arabic descent t, possibly more than they know people of Jewish descent. WWII seems so far away.

WWII may be far away, but 9/11 is certainly not. And it was Arab Muslims who attacked us then. And Palestinian Arab Muslims were celebrating in the streets.

Jews are not seen as the underdogs the same way they were in the 60’s-70’s. But Arabs are.

Being seen as an "underdog" does not indicate who is in the right. Ukrainians are in the right because they were invaded by Russia, not because they are underdogs. Israel is in the right because they were attacked by Gaza. They are not in the wrong because Gaza is "underdog". Being an "underdog" does not give anyone the right to invade their neighbors and murder and kidnap people by the hundreds. It does not give anybody the right to seek and plan the destruction of their neighbor.

These GenZ idiots falling for antisemitic and islamofascist propaganda would be on the side of Germany and Japan in 1945 because losing WWII suddenly makes them "underdogs". Poor underdog Hitler stuck in that musty bunker of his.

Kids today saw anyone who ‘ looked Arab’ regarded with suspicion after 9/11. What young generation does not love an underdog? Plus of course it is easier to see the Arab side to the Arab Israeli conflicts now compared with 50 years ago.

Arabs and Muslims were regarded with suspicion for a good reason. There should be more suspicion of Islamism today, not less. Look at what's happening in Europe, especially in the UK where the Green Party is increasingly becoming the party of the political Islam.

This is all a very surface analysis of how/why opinion in the US has shifted, deliberately as most people in the IS do not have a very good sense of history, geography or context for world events. Even more true of younger people, who, like their parents before them, like to see things differently and choose their own heroes—helped along by the omniscient media and propaganda machines. They correctly question every position their parents took as we boomers questioned our parents’ positions and they, their parents’.

There is a difference between questioning and automatic gainsaying. We should question what came before us, yes, but honest questioning means accepting "yes" for an answer as well.
Hamas, Hezbollah and IRGC are not heroes and everybody who views them as such is an idiot of the highest caliber.

It was a very small group of MEN who attacked us. Should we hate all men?

Obviously not. Most violent crime is committed by men. Most wars throughout history have been started by men.

We don’t hate men.

Honest questioning means looking for facts, context, understanding.

 

[Elixir]

It was a very small group of MEN who attacked us. Should we hate all men?

Well, to be perfectly fair and balanced, yes.
Probably killing them all is the only way to be sure you get all the bad ones.

 

[Jimmy Higgins]

Platner reaching for the easy to grab fruit. Worked for the GOP, so do a double dip. The trouble with populists, however, is solutions aren't as simple as cutting energy taxes and wealth taxes.

It does get tiring to hear how America is growing discontent with gasoline prices, when they have pushed for larger vehicles, fought inefficiency, and live so far away from work (yes, I get in some places that is the only place they can afford to live). While Trump's Iran military stupidity has direct influence on the price of gasoline right now, America's dependence on it has been driven by American apathy towards efficiency and planning.

Wealth tax is another thing. Yes, we need to develop ways to manage taxation of emergent wealth vehicles. The trouble we run into is that won't solve problems. We could seize all of the billionaires' wealth in the US and budge the US debt by 25% or so. The US has prioritized austerity and Americans are angry about the results, yet keep voting for more austerity.

America is just kind of nuts.

 

[Harry Bosch]

Platner reaching for the easy to grab fruit. Worked for the GOP, so do a double dip. The trouble with populists, however, is solutions aren't as simple as cutting energy taxes and wealth taxes.

It does get tiring to hear how America is growing discontent with gasoline prices, when they have pushed for larger vehicles, fought inefficiency, and live so far away from work (yes, I get in some places that is the only place they can afford to live). While Trump's Iran military stupidity has direct influence on the price of gasoline right now, America's dependence on it has been driven by American apathy towards efficiency and planning.

Wealth tax is another thing. Yes, we need to develop ways to manage taxation of emergent wealth vehicles. The trouble we run into is that won't solve problems. We could seize all of the billionaires' wealth in the US and budge the US debt by 25% or so. The US has prioritized austerity and Americans are angry about the results, yet keep voting for more austerity.

America is just kind of nuts.

Agreed. Americans want better jobs, less inflation, less taxes, more stuff. Taxes on wealth and focusing on woke (derail sorry) dosn't address these issues.

 

[thebeave]

It was a very small group of MEN who attacked us. Should we hate all men?

Well, to be perfectly fair and balanced, yes.
Probably killing them all is the only way to be sure you get all the bad ones.

Yikes! Sounds pretty drastic. You're not planning to <gulp> do yourself in, are you?*

* in case you do, I'll take your Tacoma off your hands. Mine's still wrecked.

 

[Rhea]

Platner reaching for the easy to grab fruit. Worked for the GOP, so do a double dip. The trouble with populists, however, is solutions aren't as simple as cutting energy taxes and wealth taxes.

It does get tiring to hear how America is growing discontent with gasoline prices, when they have pushed for larger vehicles, fought inefficiency, and live so far away from work (yes, I get in some places that is the only place they can afford to live). While Trump's Iran military stupidity has direct influence on the price of gasoline right now, America's dependence on it has been driven by American apathy towards efficiency and planning.

Wealth tax is another thing. Yes, we need to develop ways to manage taxation of emergent wealth vehicles. The trouble we run into is that won't solve problems. We could seize all of the billionaires' wealth in the US and budge the US debt by 25% or so. The US has prioritized austerity and Americans are angry about the results, yet keep voting for more austerity.

America is just kind of nuts.

Agreed. Americans want better jobs, less inflation, less taxes, more stuff. Taxes on wealth and focusing on woke (derail sorry) dosn't address these issues.

It kinda does, tho.
When you look at the amount of wealth that was scraped from the actual workers and shoveled to the wealthy by the power their money bought them in congress, then addressing that wealth and how it is used to scrape mkore money from the Americans— DOES address their inflation, taxes, etc.