Hardkill

I really like Biden and respect a lot of the great work he has already done for this country, but I wish Obama could save my country by being president again.

Ok, that makes sense to me. Thank you.

If I wanted to just have a one-night stand with some random girl I met from a night club in LA or in Vegas for or if I wanted to have a friends with benefits kind of relationship with a girl I met from cold approach or what have you, do I still need to be romantic with that girl in order to seduce her into sleeping with me? Or could that actually mislead her into thinking that I want a serious relationship with her even if I don't want that?

So, not everyone who is either poor or middle class or working class is able to become financially well off without sufficient intervention and regulation from the government?

Okay, so in that case why does the government need to fix the economic inequality problem?

I agree with that, but just to play Devil’s advocate, what about the argument made by the right-wing in America, which is that “if want to improve whatever situation you’re in, then don’t depend on the government to save you. If you want to improve your standard of living and/or improve your level of education, or have the opportunity to focus on higher conscious pursuits, then it’s your responsibility to achieve those things yourself. You have to power to do all yourself and by asking for the right help from those in private sector.”

Polls shows that most Americans don't want either Trump or Biden to run for president again. However, it's looking like 2024 is going to be a rematch of these two old white men. https://www.nytimes.com/2023/04/25/upshot/polls-biden-trump-2024.html https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2023/apr/29/biden-trump-2024-polls-old-white-men Will this substantially dampen voter turnout due to lack of voter enthusiasm for these two and for politics in general....... or will this once again cause voter turnout to skyrocket to such a historic level like what has happened in 2018, 2020, and 2022 because of how incredibly polarizing and threatening Trump is and how increasingly divided and politically charged America keeps getting?

@aurum @Roy Yeah, I am with both of you on those points. That's why it kinda makes me wonder sometimes if there is any need or urgency for anymore liberal or progressive economic policies for those who are not wealthy. Do you think that the growing economic equality in the US needs to be fixed?

and who do you have in mind? Can you come up with anyone for SURE who would be as popular as Bill Clinton or Barack Obama? The fact is that none of the Democratic politicians in the US who are clearly anymore popular or likable than Biden is. Same thing with Trump and the GOP. There is no one in the Republican party who is more popular than Trump. I'd like to think that Gavin Newsom might become the Bill Clinton of the West Coast; however, given his wide reputation of being the governor of California for more than 4 years, he might very well come off as being way too liberal for those in the Southern states and in the heartland of the US. Besides, he's already made it clear that he will not run for president in 2024. A lot of others are saying that Gretchen Whitmer, might have a chance, but she may not have enough charisma to overcome the fact that she's a woman. Too many Americans, especially those in the South and middle America, are still averse to the idea of a woman being POTUS, particularly after we already had a black president. Personally, I'd like to think that either Josh Shapiro or John Fetterman from Pennsylvania would seem to have great appeal to the America people, but they just got newly elected as the new governor of the state and new US senator of the state respectively. So, neither of them would be ready to run for president yet. I can't think of anyone who would have a better chance than Biden. So, I don't see anyone who would be a better alternative for 2024.

To be fair, that's true. He did sign the First Step Act into law which led to federal prison reform for the better. He also signed into law the raising the minimum age of smoking from 18 to 21 years old and the signed into law the creation of the US Space Force. Furthermore, the CARES stimulus package he passed with Congress during the very beginning of the COVID pandemic was really good too. However, in terms of the overall legislative accomplishments he made as president, he only achieved minimal success that was less than any president since perhaps the worst years of the Gilded Age. According to "Several political scientists described the legislative accomplishments of this Congress as modest, considering that both Congress and the presidency were under unified Republican Party control." Plus, according to a contemporary study, "House and Senate GOP majorities struggled to legislate: GOP fissures and the president frequently undermined the Republican agenda. Most notably, clashes within and between the two parties (for example, on healthcare issues) strained old ways of doing business." The only legislative success he got that most Americans really noticed was his big Tax Cut law that primarily benefitted wealthy Americans and corporations. It was primarily through his executive actions that Trump followed through on many of his promises (all of which where terrible far-right wing policies that really caused serious damage to the US and to many other parts of the world). These included: withdrawing America from the Nuclear weapons accord with Iran, withdrawing from the Paris Agreement on climate change, withdrawing from the Treaty on Open Skies, withdrawing from the Intermediate-Range Nuclear Forces Treaty that President Reagan had negotiated with Russia, revamping immigration policy by separating the families of undocumented immigrants, imposed a travel ban on residents of certain foreign nations (particularly muslims), seized money from the military to build his "border wall," eviscerated clean air and water regulations, and throttled back efforts to control catastrophic climate change. Not to mention that he appointed three christian nationalist Justices to SCOTUS, which undoubtedly cemented a conservative supermajority in the US Supreme Court, and he appointed about a quarter of all federal appellate federal judges. All of these federal level judges got easily confirmed by the devious machinations of then-Senate Majority leader Mitch McConnell and the rest of his Senate GOP caucus. The total number of federal level judges that he appointed and got confirmed throughout his entire presidency became a modern record for a president in his first three and half years as president. Consequently, all of these Trumps judges at the federal level already have and will continue to have such a decisive role in American jurisprudence for decades in a way that's incredibly reactionary. Moreover, while his military/foreign policies thankfully did not lead to some disastrous war or some major foreign policy failure for America, his military/foreign policies were really not so great. In fact, his relations with every NATO ally were terrible and he was bed with Putin, Kim-Jong Un, and some very corrupt middle eastern leaders. All of his key foreign policy initiatives had failed. Rather than drawing down, North Korea actually ended up ramping up its capacity to produce nuclear weapons and develop missile delivery systems. Iran did not abate its support for international terrorism and instead relaunched its program for building a nuclear bomb after Trump withdrew from the Iran nuclear accord and failed to negotiate a new treaty. Russia continued to increase its dominance in the Middle East and was not deterred from its aggression in Ukraine. Even though he made a paper treaty with Afghanistan, it did not help to prevent the Taliban from taking over the country. His order of the assassination of Qassim Soleimani, only ramped up tensions in the Middle East, and lead to the ISIS terrorists to come back with a vengeance. Biden at least made good on his promises to finally end the forever war in Afghanistan and finally put an end to the failed idea of nation building in underdeveloped countries in the Middle East. Plus, his handling of the War in Ukraine has without a doubt been highly strategic, wise, effective, and hasn't cost any American lives or even the lives of anyone in any of the other NATO countries. Plus, he's been taking a tough, but shrewd stance against China with regard to intellectual property rights and trading. Additionally, despite the fact that the Democrats lost control of the House in Congress, they defied electoral history by winning the 2022 midterm season overall while being the party in power. That gave Biden even more leverage to run for president again. Regarding the economy, yes the US has been suffering from the inflation issue for over two years now, but during Biden's first two years as president, the US economy had a historic boom and recovered, at breakneck speed, all of the several millions of jobs lost from the COVID pandemic recession. Plus, the US unemployment rate has been at a historic low for almost a full year now and Biden has now presided over way more than a million new jobs (many of which are good paying ones) in addition to all of the jobs recovered from the pandemic. Lastly, Trump incited violence, fanned the fires of hatred and racism, sowed chaos in America especially during his last year in office. Biden, on the other hand has significantly dampened down chaos, violence, racism, and the rise of hate groups in America.

Most people in America and in many other parts of the world wish that there was some Obama-like superstar candidate running for president in 2024 who is either centre-left or centre-right. Of course, America ideally needs a progressive president like Teddy Roosevelt, Woodrow Wilson, FDR, or JFK/LBJ. Unfortunately, there hasn't been anyone over the past 2 years since Biden has been president who has been able to clearly demonstrate themselves as either a charismatic moderate liberal or inspirational moderate conservative or a progressive who has enough popular support from the American people. Furthermore, believe it or not, but Biden has actually turned out to be so far one of the most successful US presidents we've ever had since LBJ in the 1960s. Btw, Biden succeeded to bring back a lot of manufacturing jobs back in America. When Trump ran for the 2016 presidential election, he made a big promise to working class Americans that he would bring back those good old manufacturing jobs that paid well and protected the national interests of the American people. That's partly how Trump won in 2016. Yet, Trump was never able to make that happen when he became president and probably never had any real intention to do so. Nevertheless, Biden was the one who was able to get it done.

According to Robert Greene, who is the author of the book, The Art of Seduction, it was actually women who were the first in all of history who first learned how to seduce men before men learned how to seduce women. Cleopatra of course is prime example of a woman in history who used her great ability to seduce men to rise to power herself. Other well known examples of women who use their seduction to rise to the top including Anne Boleyn, the 2nd wife of Henry VIII, Agrippina, the Powerful Roman Empress, Harriette Wilson, Agnès Sorel, etc. They weren't just physically beautiful, they also learned how to sexually appeal to men by learning game. Furthermore, many of the sexiest female celebrities, most successful female strippers, and top female pornstars out there since the 1900s didn't just become rich and famous simply because of how hot they look. They also learned the skills to seduce tons and tons of men. Listen to female dating coach, Kezia Noble, talk about how they have been some female strippers who look somewhat above average actually but were able to hook men much better than the other female strippers who were the 9s and 10s but didn't have the sexual charisma: If that was true then why haven't there been a lot of women these days in our modern era, especially with the current rise of feminism in every developed country around the world, who approach, make the first moves, and flirt hard with the men they talk to?

@Lila9 It's true that the waves of feminism in developed have really given women such power over men sexually. @Something Funny Ah, okay. I see your point. However, if women want to attract and keep the kind of men they want for a LTR, then they are also going to need to learn how to seduce men and learn the skills needed to behave and talk in a feminine manner. Unfortunately, most girls/women in first world countries don't know how to be compliant and supportive to a man they are attracted to:

This might force Fox News to tone down it's extreme right-wing conspiracy rhetoric to some extent, because they know from a business standpoint that they can't afford to do an unlimited amount of settlements, especially when you consider the fact that Fox News is actually a dying cable news channel that will one day lose its major influence it has had over the American public in about a couple of decades from now (possibly even sooner than that):

That's why it blows my mind that there hasn't already been a massive uprising against the rich and corporations and the government to demand affordable housing. The right-wing billionaires, far-right Republican politicians, and right-wing corporate elites in America have already gotten away with having stolen about 50 trillion dollars from the poor, working poor, working class, and upper-middle class since around 1980. Plus, construction businesses and most politicians haven't wanted to build more houses for people in America since the beginning of neoliberalism. It's really no wonder why more and more people can't afford their own home without being in debt. One day, there will be untold violent attacks on the right-wing billionaires, far-right Republican politicians, and right-wing corporate elites in America because of their boundless greed and how unbelievably out of touch they have been with the masses over the past several decades. Believe me, I wish such violence didn't have to happen, but it is inevitable and what goes around comes around.

It does bring some momentary relief to us left-wingers that he will no longer be working on Fox News. But the right-wing media will still become as toxic and as dangerous as it always has been. So, I am not sure if this really changes anything for the better.

So, why can't China's Congress, courts, law enforcement, or military put a check to his power? Trump failed to take over the country and overturn the 2020 election like a dictator because of the checks and balances we have in America.

Has he been officially diagnosed with bipolar disorder?

Leo has talked before about how people as a collective need to have a good level of education, be financially comfortable, and be exposed to people of different races/ethnicities/cultures in order to transcend to stage Green. However, that doesn't seem to be the case with most people who are highly educated, wealthy, and have experienced being around other who are of different cultures, races, and ethnicities. Instead, most of them keep being stuck in stage Orange because of how corrupted they are by their preoccupation with their own success, wealth, status, etc. even though many of them pretend to care about those in need with all of their charities they do? In fact, why throughout history have Kings, Queens, Popes, other wealthy and high ranked religious leaders, and other members of royal families and members of nobility all of whom became highly educated, extremely wealthy, and have a more sophisticated about other cultures, races, and ethnicities out there in the world were never able to come close to transcending to stage Green?

I get that the people of Russia can’t really do anything to stop Putin from continuing his war in Ukraine, but why doesn’t the Russian legislative branch or the Russian court system or Putin’s inner circle (the siloviki) put a stop to his madness? I understand that having Democratic, free, and fair elections doesn’t work in Russia, but why aren’t there at least any checks and balances at all in the government amongst all of the elites? What does Putin have over everyone else within the courts, the legislative branches, the siloviki that none of them are willing to do the right thing? Or is it that all of the elites have also been true believers of restoring the Soviet Union empire?

That's true. It's too bad that they aren't enough of them who are clamoring for freedom and financial support from the government. Btw, what about the fact that there are a lot of people in Russia who want the war to stop because they have many family members and relatives who live in Ukraine? Or do those Russians represent only a small percentage of the Russian population? Ah, that would make sense. Yeah, I kinda wish that Zelensky and his government would be willing to compromise on something. Then again, it is certainly within his and his people's right to have all of Ukraine back in one piece especially after everything the Ukrainian have been through.

But won't the people of Russia be gravely suffering financially from this war? Do you think then that Russia will inevitably succeed in taking over Ukraine?

I see. So, that's why he never wanted to go to war with NATO. But what will Putin have truly gained even if he does succeed in taking over the country? According to a WSJ article on Russia's economy, Russian billionaire Oleg Deripaska warned this month that Russia is running out of cash. “There will be no money next year, we need foreign investors,” the raw-materials magnate said at an economic conference. https://www.wsj.com/articles/russias-economy-is-starting-to-come-undone-431a2878 The only big countries that would still be interested in doing business with Russia are India and Russia. Yet, economists such as Paul Krugman have already mentioned that China and India won't be enough to save Russia economically.

Right, but what about equality including economic equality. That's what socialism was supposed to be about. Also, more people in China are becoming bold and angry enough to protest against the CCP.

I though Xi Jinping has now been granted absolute power or near absolute power like a totalitarian socialist dictator such as Mao or Stalin. They say that the country under his reign has become increasingly authoritarian as he continues to rule more and more with an iron fist.