For those that follow USA politics

[NoBodyImportant]

Candice Owens is Running.  We have begged her for years to do this.  

[chrisjpainter]

Such a bad idea.

[Ultrastu]

Now that is a girl I would vote for .👍

[Scully]

Never heard of her. Who is she? 
Just googled her; a black woman who is critical of the BLM movement. Sounds like a plan. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by Scully

[NoBodyImportant]

1 hour ago, Scully said:

Never heard of her. Who is she? 
Just googled her; a black woman who is critical of the BLM movement. Sounds like a plan. 

She is a very smart, well spoken, women who isn’t scared to tell it like it is.  She is very pro American, and conservative on spending.  Every complaint I had about Trump she also had.  

My Facebook feed is going nuts with all my conservative friends cheering.  

[Scully]

6 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said:

She is a very smart, well spoken, women who isn’t scared to tell it like it is.  She is very pro American, and conservative on spending.  Every complaint I had about Trump she also had.  

My Facebook feed is going nuts with all my conservative friends cheering.  

👍

[chrisjpainter]

The reason why I think that'd be a bad idea is not to do with political beliefs. She could be a mad cap lefty, or a die-hard centrist, but she's a terrible choice for a presidential race. 

She has no political experience (as in actually being in politics, not just journalism). She has no education in politics. She has never been a position of responsibility for those that disagree with you, something that's inescapable at any lower level of political representation. She's bypassing any position of minor political involvement and going straight to the top. 

Setting aside political beliefs for a moment and concentrating on just events, Trump's presidency was erratic. A seemingly endless revolving door of important positions, some positions not being filled for months after inauguration. People getting jobs for which they're unqualified, questionable direction of funding to suit agendas and so on, grossly insulting foreign leaders (I don't mean on policy decisions, but personal slights on people and countries) So much of this stemmed from Trump's lack of experience in how politics works and why it works when it's done well.

Going through local politics, then state politics, governorships/House/Senate hardens a person for the political realities and forces a person to learn to work with people who disagree with them. Trump dodged all that and ended up enraging the democrats (inevitable, obviously) but also members of his own party, as well as isolating and embittering everyone who didn't agree with him. And that's how he lost the election.  Her political beliefs might appeal to many, but she's an awful candidate for the Republican party to send into bat for them. 

It also sends out a terrible, terrible message, a message that plenty on here have rightly criticised the political system for in the past. She doesn't have experience. She doesn't have a political education. What she has is contacts and thus money. She is the epitome of 'it's not what you know but who you know'. 

[NoBodyImportant]

17 minutes ago, chrisjpainter said:

The reason why I think that'd be a bad idea is not to do with political beliefs. She could be a mad cap lefty, or a die-hard centrist, but she's a terrible choice for a presidential race. 

She has no political experience (as in actually being in politics, not just journalism). She has no education in politics. She has never been a position of responsibility for those that disagree with you, something that's inescapable at any lower level of political representation. She's bypassing any position of minor political involvement and going straight to the top. 

Setting aside political beliefs for a moment and concentrating on just events, Trump's presidency was erratic. A seemingly endless revolving door of important positions, some positions not being filled for months after inauguration. People getting jobs for which they're unqualified, questionable direction of funding to suit agendas and so on, grossly insulting foreign leaders (I don't mean on policy decisions, but personal slights on people and countries) So much of this stemmed from Trump's lack of experience in how politics works and why it works when it's done well.

Going through local politics, then state politics, governorships/House/Senate hardens a person for the political realities and forces a person to learn to work with people who disagree with them. Trump dodged all that and ended up enraging the democrats (inevitable, obviously) but also members of his own party, as well as isolating and embittering everyone who didn't agree with him. And that's how he lost the election.  Her political beliefs might appeal to many, but she's an awful candidate for the Republican party to send into bat for them. 

It also sends out a terrible, terrible message, a message that plenty on here have rightly criticised the political system for in the past. She doesn't have experience. She doesn't have a political education. What she has is contacts and thus money. She is the epitome of 'it's not what you know but who you know'. 

So what your saying is she isn’t part of the swamp.  Foreign leaders hated Trump because he wouldn’t let the rest of the world use America as a bank account. The amount of foreign aid American tax payers shell out for every year is astronomical.  The last 3 years has been the most profitable for my family in my entire life.  I made more money last year in the stock market I then I did at my job.  Under his presidency I paid my house off,  bought a place at the beach, bought at 25 acres farm,  bought a new truck, and came out of it all with zero debt.  I was homeless 7 years ago under Obama when everyone was unemployed and I couldn’t pay for my house,  Obama said those manufacturing  jobs were not coming.  His exact words was America would need a magic wand to get those jobs.  Well abracadabra, because Trump made it happen.  6 months ago for fun I put a resume on a job site for fun and got 47 companies in 24hours wanting to interview me.  It’s was crazy. Trump might have been bad for the rest of the world but he was damn good for America.  

[NoBodyImportant]

From being homeless to buying a house on a 2 year mortgage because of trumps economy.  This picture was our last mortgage payment.   We bought our beach shack, and farm with cash about with-in two years after.   This is why I don’t care Trump tweets mean things.  This is why I don’t care about pulling troops out of foreign wars. Because I have cried myself to sleep wanting to work but their is nothing available.  I have lived in a camper with a drop cord running to my in-laws house for power.  I can make as much money as I want right now and I know Biden is going to destroy it so I’m stocking as much money in my bank accounts as possible.  I owe everything I have to Donald Trump.  He looked out for us poor,  not the rich.  

Edited February 7, 2021 by NoBodyImportant

[chrisjpainter]

38 minutes ago, NoBodyImportant said:

So what your saying is she isn’t part of the swamp.  Foreign leaders hated Trump because he wouldn’t let the rest of the world use America as a bank account. The amount of foreign aid American tax payers shell out for every year is astronomical.  The last 3 years has been the most profitable for my family in my entire life.  I made more money last year in the stock market I then I did at my job.  Under his presidency I paid my house off,  bought a place at the beach, bought at 25 acres farm,  bought a new truck, and came out of it all with zero debt.  I was homeless 7 years ago under Obama when everyone was unemployed and I couldn’t pay for my house,  Obama said those manufacturing  jobs were not coming.  His exact words was America would need a magic wand to get those jobs.  Well abracadabra, because Trump made it happen.  6 months ago for fun I put a resume on a job site for fun and got 47 companies in 24hours wanting to interview me.  It’s was crazy. Trump might have been bad for the rest of the world but he was damn good for America.  

No I'm saying she's not qualified yet. That was what was said about Trump when he came in. What did he do? Got beaten the next time round by the tune of 7 million votes, lost the House, lost the Senate and got impeached. Twice. He had the highest turnover of staff in the first year of a presidency ever - not to mention his poor handling of the pandemic.

Not all of them. Some hated him for calling their countries '****holes' or not knowing what their country was called when addressing them. 

He was damn good for your America. And that's fine, I've got no problem with that. But he's been dreadful for plenty of Americans, so much so that he got battered to the tune of a landslide when it came to re election. 

But whatever the merits of his presidency and I don't deny he's been very good for many, one thing he's inescapably failed to do is give himself and his party the chance to build on it for another four years, then another four years after that by installing his successor. You might blame the Democrats, or BLM, or the Russians, or the Chinese, or whomever you like, but the personality, practice and style of Donald Trump helped make him completely unelectable once that shine of 'he's not part of the swamp' had worn off. 

This candidate is a terrible choice to pick as defender of the things those that agree with her hold dear. Get her in as a lieutenant. Give her four/eight years senior policy experience. Expose her to the realities of a hostile House and Senate. Giver her time to win over people not just in rhetoric, but in action. Give the party time to whole-heartedly rally to her cause. Battle harden her, then release her. You know who could have done that? Trump, by winning another term. But some of the same problems that Trump had with re-election will be hers right out of the block - and that's before you accept that not everyone even in the Republican Party will be behind her political beliefs. Right now, aside from those political beliefs, all she has to bring to the table is a reputation that's tied to a president who got smashed in a landslide. 

Edited February 7, 2021 by chrisjpainter

[henry d]

9 hours ago, chrisjpainter said:

She has no political experience (as in actually being in politics, not just journalism). She has no education in politics. She has never been a position of responsibility for those that disagree with you, something that's inescapable at any lower level of political representation. She's bypassing any position of minor political involvement and going straight to the top

A perfect president then 🇺🇸🤡

[Walker570]

10 hours ago, chrisjpainter said:

The reason why I think that'd be a bad idea is not to do with political beliefs. She could be a mad cap lefty, or a die-hard centrist, but she's a terrible choice for a presidential race. 

She has no political experience (as in actually being in politics, not just journalism). She has no education in politics. She has never been a position of responsibility for those that disagree with you, something that's inescapable at any lower level of political representation. She's bypassing any position of minor political involvement and going straight to the top. 

Setting aside political beliefs for a moment and concentrating on just events, Trump's presidency was erratic. A seemingly endless revolving door of important positions, some positions not being filled for months after inauguration. People getting jobs for which they're unqualified, questionable direction of funding to suit agendas and so on, grossly insulting foreign leaders (I don't mean on policy decisions, but personal slights on people and countries) So much of this stemmed from Trump's lack of experience in how politics works and why it works when it's done well.

Going through local politics, then state politics, governorships/House/Senate hardens a person for the political realities and forces a person to learn to work with people who disagree with them. Trump dodged all that and ended up enraging the democrats (inevitable, obviously) but also members of his own party, as well as isolating and embittering everyone who didn't agree with him. And that's how he lost the election.  Her political beliefs might appeal to many, but she's an awful candidate for the Republican party to send into bat for them. 

It also sends out a terrible, terrible message, a message that plenty on here have rightly criticised the political system for in the past. She doesn't have experience. She doesn't have a political education. What she has is contacts and thus money. She is the epitome of 'it's not what you know but who you know'. 

Therefor a VERY GOOD IDEA INDEED...she can carry on draining the swamp of career politicians sucking off the public. Have listened to a number of her speeches and she would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons .....Pelosi, Schumer and the rest of the swamp would have one hell of a time trying to undermine her.

Edited February 7, 2021 by Walker570

[chrisjpainter]

20 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Therefor a VERY GOOD IDEA INDEED...she can carry on draining the swamp of career politicians sucking off the public. Have listened to a number of her speeches and she would certainly put the cat amongst the pigeons .....Pelosi, Schumer and the rest of the swamp would have one hell of a time trying to undermine her.

A very good idea indeed? You mean one chaotic term followed by a landslide defeat? All this talk about not being part of the establishment and not feeding from the trough is what they said about Trump. It got him elected - and then followed a long catalogue of political incompetency as I've already described. And she's now seen as too much of Trump's successor. To a democrat, that's the language of divisiveness, racism, inequality, Capitol insurrection. To too many republicans? It's the language of massive failure in an election.

You say that Pelosi et al.  would have one hell of a job, but firstly she'd have to convince moderate republicans that she can win. That's tough enough because Trump took such a shellacking in the General. But imagine, by some miracle, that she did manage to win the primary, you think Pelosi's cabal would be worried? Aside from Trump running again, she's the candidate Pelosi would be dying for the republicans to pick!

Bring up her anti BLM record. You've lost all of the democrats right out of the blocks. Paint her as a traitor to the Black cause. With so many black Dems in Congress, you get enough of them to say it - and plenty will do it for free - and her goose is cooked with the black voters. Then paint her stance against the #metoo movement and abortion as anti women and thus she's a traitor to them too. Millions of moderates will be uneasy about the #metoo movement, yes, but a women's right to choose is still too sacred to them. And then you paint her as ignorant on Muslim issues, all the while alluding to her complete lack of any kind of experience in politics and trot out the line, 'do you really want a complete green newbie to having her finger on THE BUTTON?!' Rightly or wrongly, too many will fall for it to overturn a 7 million deficit. 

NoBodyImportant's quite right, Trump's been great for lots of Americans, but all the Dems will do is make sure that's drowned out in a war of ideology that she can't possibly win - and too many republicans know it or don't agree with her anyway. I can guarantee Pelosi will be licking her lips at the thought of Owens running. Why? Because they now know how to beat Trump-style politics. It becomes irrelevant whether she'd be good for the country; she's just too beatable. It's unglamorous, dirty, and completely lacking in integrity, but it's effective, especially when Trump's given them so much ammo to wage a proxy war with.  This shouldn't be how politics works, but the democrats won't care about that. They want a win and right now, Owens gives them one heck of a shot at doing that. 

[Walker570]

Well you write reams and reams about his incompetence yet our member who lives in the USA seems to have a VERY different opinion along with a growing number of folks who voted Democrat and your choice is already dropping dramatically in the polls, sitting at just 48% this morning the lowest of any President in history at the end of a year and this goon has only been in for a couple of weeks. As the goon says, "Give me a break Man".

[ordnance]

11 hours ago, NoBodyImportant said:

From being homeless to buying a house on a 2 year mortgage because of trumps economy.  This picture was our last mortgage payment.   We bought our beach shack, and farm with cash about with-in two years after.   This is why I don’t care Trump tweets mean things.  This is why I don’t care about pulling troops out of foreign wars. Because I have cried myself to sleep wanting to work but their is nothing available.  I have lived in a camper with a drop cord running to my in-laws house for power.  I can make as much money as I want right now and I know Biden is going to destroy it so I’m stocking as much money in my bank accounts as possible.  I owe everything I have to Donald Trump.  He looked out for us poor,  not the rich.  

You should be angry with Trump then,  the only reason he didn't get another 4 years was his disastrous election campaign and his incompetence. He messed up, no conspiracies no stolen election.

Quote

Well you write reams and reams about his incompetence yet our member who lives in the USA seems to have a VERY different opinion along with a growing number of folks who voted Democrat and your choice is already dropping dramatically in the polls.

To late at least 4 years of Democrats, and that's down to Trumps incompetence. 

[chrisjpainter]

16 minutes ago, Walker570 said:

Well you write reams and reams about his incompetence yet our member who lives in the USA seems to have a VERY different opinion along with a growing number of folks who voted Democrat and your choice is already dropping dramatically in the polls, sitting at just 48% this morning the lowest of any President in history at the end of a year and this goon has only been in for a couple of weeks. As the goon says, "Give me a break Man".

He's not my choice particularly. And actually, if you'd noticed, this isn't about Biden, it's about Owens. What have I said about her that's wrong? You don't think the democrats will do what I've said? It's the most obvious and easiest trick in the book! None of it's about substance, but it is all too predictable. The Republicans would be mad to run her in 2024; she's so beatable. 2028, maybe, if they start building her for it now. 2032 would be more sensible. but 2024 is a fast track to getting her career killed before it's even begun. If she's as good as (some of) the right think her to be, don't burn her on a premature run. 

[NoBodyImportant]

Let’s talk again in a year.  This is a fun game people on Facebook were playing.  This was my last grocery run in December before Biden took office.  I will repost the cost of the same items in one year.  These are the American staples.  Gas $1.69 a gallon, eggs $.68 an dozen, bread $.88 a loaf, beef $1.99lbs, chicken breast $1.89lbs, milk $1.65 a gallon.  My stock portfolio ended the year at 22% return.  

[WalkedUp]

Food is a lot cheaper in the US than here in the UK. I believe my wife pays £14 for a free range organic chicken. 

[Houseplant]

NoBodyImportant - you would probably have a heart attack if you saw NZ food prices 🤣

[Fisheruk]

46 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

Food is a lot cheaper in the US than here in the UK. I believe my wife pays £14 for a free range organic chicken. 

You wouldn’t get an organic free range chicken for $1.89.in the states. I paid £3.85 for a whole chicken this week, £3.19 for 600g of chicken breasts. Ground beef similarly priced over here. Interestingly most of my friends in the States are very much Trump supporters, before he was elected, during his Presidency, and during the election, even when over here we could see Biden had won, many still believed he would be President again!

[NoBodyImportant]

52 minutes ago, Houseplant said:

NoBodyImportant - you would probably have a heart attack if you saw NZ food prices 🤣

In one year I will be unemployed and not able to buy food so don’t feel bad.  

17 minutes ago, Fisheruk said:

You wouldn’t get an organic free range chicken for $1.89.in the states. I paid £3.85 for a whole chicken this week, £3.19 for 600g of chicken breasts. Ground beef similarly priced over here. Interestingly most of my friends in the States are very much Trump supporters, before he was elected, during his Presidency, and during the election, even when over here we could see Biden had won, many still believed he would be President again!

I don’t buy into the free range thing.  Their life in a cage isn’t nearly as bad as me cutting them to pieces and sautéing him.  

[WalkedUp]

I’m not sold by organic but I do think free range and animal welfare is important. It’s like our pheasants, cared for with a great life then carefully “hand shot by artisans” 🤣

[JTaylor91]

9 minutes ago, WalkedUp said:

I’m not sold by organic but I do think free range and animal welfare is important. It’s like our pheasants, cared for with a great life then carefully “hand shot by artisans” 🤣

Where is your wife buying the chicken? We buy a whole free range chicken from Aldi and it’s about £6.

[WalkedUp]

https://www.sainsburys.co.uk/gol-ui/product/organic-meat-fish-and-poultry/sainsburys-free-range-whole-chicken-so-organic-approx-900g-22kg-

[Scully]

2 hours ago, WalkedUp said:

Food is a lot cheaper in the US than here in the UK. I believe my wife pays £14 for a free range organic chicken. 

😳 Sonebody’s extracting the  urine somewhere! 
We buy whole chickens from Aldi, and they’re about the tastiest we have found.