colourwheel

Based on C-Span Presidential Historians Survey of 2021, this here should settle things on who are the worst Presidents in history. https://www.c-span.org/presidentsurvey2021/?page=overall As you can see Obama comes up with a high enough score to be 10th place while Trump is in 41st place being extremely close to the very bottom. George W. Bush this year comes in 29th place. Basically only 3 other Presidents are considered to be worse then Trump which are Franklin Pierce, Andrew Johnson, and in very last place is James Buchanan. From the looks of it, until historians rate a new President worse then Trump it looks as if Trump will remain considered 4th in line to the worst in our history for quite a while.

Back on topic, Trump never did give the American people any sort of a meaningful concession speech. So I personally think Jimmy Fallon did a great job putting together one for us.

The Irony of this thread is just recently Historians ranked Donald Chump near the very bottom of U.S. Presidents making him one of the top 10 worst Presidents in history. While Obama came in on the top 10 Best Presidents in history.

No one was claiming that racism would be gone over night simply by starting to educate the youth suddenly. It would likely take generations but at least it's progress and doing something proactive that would likely produce results over time instead of simply treating systematic racism like we have treated climate change. If we wait too long without doing something things become problems where we are forced to just adapt to and that's currently where we are. Something like "Critical race theory" should have been taught decades ago. And no suddenly teaching "Critical race theory" won't solve all the problems we have with racism either. Likely won't solve a lot of the things you listed above. But at least it will teach future generations to critically think about future policy making that will hopefully not make us repeat history and perpetually fuel the attitudes and prejudice that we have now. Changing people's attitudes and behavior does take time. Where that begins is through education. Teaching "Critical race theory" is specifically for this purpose. A century from now, Caucasians will most likely be the minority in America. Maybe you don't specifically care about this but say some organization that is specifically the predominantly minority in the country and happens to commits a future terrorist attack on our soil over 100 years from now. It could be your posterity who is suddenly rounded up and put into internment camps simply for being a certain race.

Everyone says that "institutional racism" in America is a lie. But if anyone bothers to look closely, America's FHA, as a prerequisite to making Federally guaranteed loans, once required neighborhoods to have bylaws which precluded people from buying houses unless they were members of the Caucasian race. These blatantly racist covenants still exist in every American State, but are particularly prevalent in Texas, Mississippi, Alabama, Arkansas, Florida, Louisiana, Georgia, Missouri, Virginia, West Virginia, and North and South Carolina. And house ownership is just ONE example. Entire communities were labeled "red zones" if there was a single resident who wasn't "of the Caucasian race". Red zones got fewer federal monies for schools, roads, electricity, water, sewage and waste disposal, as the money was all relegated to communities which had enforced covenants. And people like Mitch McConnell have the audacity to say there is no systemic racism in America. Hell, red zones still exist. Only now, they are call "distressed neighborhoods" or "ghettos" or "slums" or "poor neighborhoods", as if the inhabitants created the problem because the FHA wouldn't loan them or their parents the money to finance a decent home in Levettown. This is exactly why we need to educate the youth to how legal policies have shaped our country today due to racism. If the country doesn't start with teaching exactly how things in the past have effected the way people live today then nothing will ever change and systematic racism will continue on even when we are all gone and dead. Policies aside, most racism is inherited from parents to children whether you realize it or not. The only way to break this cycle is through education and this is the main focus of "Critical race theory". But the problem is some speculate that forcing schools to teach this will inherently perpetuate racism. Mostly those who feel that all "Critical race theory" teaches is how HeyYou probably feels about it... "Every ill that has befallen minorities in this country is white folks fault". But if unless people don't want systematic racism to stop or don't even want to try to do anything about it, what is really the alternative? Are we just to pretend it doesn't exist and pretend everything is ok because you don't think it personally effect you or me? Back during world world II over 60,000 Japanese American citizens were forced into internment camps. Integrated in these internment camps were a total of over 150,000 who were imprisoned simply because they were just Asian. America has a long history of racism that isn't always directed towards African Americans. American policies have effected many Races over time. You can currently look at recent policies that target different ethnics groups from the middle east to the southern border. You have to face the facts that over the history of our Republic a majority of legal framework has been crafted specifically by White Americans. If you believe this would be teaching kids that white people are to blame for a lot of this, I wouldn't say you would be wrong but certainly the purpose of "Critical race theory" isn't to teach that only white people can be racist. In fact a lot of policies over the many decades have turned minorities to be just as racists towards other racial groups. Yes, teaching "Critical race theory" to our youth will dramatically effect generations after and probably completely change the nation we know today. But that is basically the point. That is if we really want to do anything about systematic racism in our country to begin with.

I will agree with you that it isn't just Trump and his supporters, but it sure seems like a majority of people who continue to spread dangerous misinformation and conspiracy theories are mostly coming from the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. But maybe that's just my perspective. I miss the days when everyone who invested in conspiracies were all about aliens and illuminati. Maybe you don't really care for the direction the country is headed now but I kind of felt this way when Trump was President too. The only reason why the two party system seems like it's failing is because one of the parties has pretty much been completely hi-jacked by one narcissistic man who struggles to regain power no matter the cost. Even if it means to disrupt our current democracy and even destroy it if it means he can get his way. Lets face it, the Republican Party is too easy to influence and practically easy to subjugate a overwhelming amount of misinformed supporters to blindly believe and follow one man. The Republican party as a whole at this point has too much of a base that would support Trump as a complete dictator and believe anything he says no matter how baseless the claims are. Something that too many Republicans don't understand, there is no mechanism to ever reinstate a President no matter how rational you can make an argument or even if there is some type of "proof" of foul play. Once a President is certified it's over and everyone has to move on. The Problem is a majority of the Republican Party won't move on... We have over 90% of elected Republican leaders in Congress who won't even admit Biden is President even though they know better. This is something you can't blame on anyone other then those who refuse to believe that the election is over. The same could be said for the dems. The whole "woke" culture is poisonous. Look what's happening in our schools today. The whole "critical race theory" thing, blaming all of our problems on white folks..... Yeah, that's certainly productive.... In any event, it isn't "just" the two-party system, it is what has been happening between them since roughly Obama got elected. It isn't about 'doing the business of the country' any more. It's making sure the 'other guys' can't get their pet legislation passed. The fight over the filibuster. Etc. Used to be, the word "compromise" held some meaning for both parties. Not today. It's a nasty word, and if you utter it, your political career is over. You might not like "woke" culture or many progressive ideas. I don't fully understand it completely either. But without the youth objectively taking a course that dives deep into the understanding of our countries history and just reject it because of personal opinion, how is any future generation suppose to over come social injustice and racism? For "Critical race theory" the purpose is to expose how racism has become a part of everyday life whether we know it or not. People end up making racist decisions that aren't meant to be racist but it ends up perpetually driving existing racism. It might seem very lopsided since a lot of it focuses on how policies in our history have shaped the way generations have grown up to understand how America is today. So it would be easy for a lot of white Americans to feel like it's all about blaming white people for everything. But to turn things around on how conservatives think, how is this any different then blaming immigrants for everything? At least "Critical race theory" has been conceived through the study of analyzing historical legal framework instead of just baselessly blaming things on immigrants. To me this whole attitude is more poisonous then having the youth of today have a better understanding of racism. Also going back to Obama, if I remember correctly it was the Republicans who suddenly decided to make it their main goal to not work with Obama and his administration no matter what, even when conservative policies were purposed. So it's no wonder why we are here today in this political environment. I object to the notion that only white people can be racist, and that every ill that has befallen minorities in this country is white folks fault. Takes two to tango. I object to the notion that only white people can be racist too. But I do feel there is a need to educate future generations that there is a long line of legal policies that have shaped the way our country is today due to racism.

I will agree with you that it isn't just Trump and his supporters, but it sure seems like a majority of people who continue to spread dangerous misinformation and conspiracy theories are mostly coming from the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. But maybe that's just my perspective. I miss the days when everyone who invested in conspiracies were all about aliens and illuminati. Maybe you don't really care for the direction the country is headed now but I kind of felt this way when Trump was President too. The only reason why the two party system seems like it's failing is because one of the parties has pretty much been completely hi-jacked by one narcissistic man who struggles to regain power no matter the cost. Even if it means to disrupt our current democracy and even destroy it if it means he can get his way. Lets face it, the Republican Party is too easy to influence and practically easy to subjugate a overwhelming amount of misinformed supporters to blindly believe and follow one man. The Republican party as a whole at this point has too much of a base that would support Trump as a complete dictator and believe anything he says no matter how baseless the claims are. Something that too many Republicans don't understand, there is no mechanism to ever reinstate a President no matter how rational you can make an argument or even if there is some type of "proof" of foul play. Once a President is certified it's over and everyone has to move on. The Problem is a majority of the Republican Party won't move on... We have over 90% of elected Republican leaders in Congress who won't even admit Biden is President even though they know better. This is something you can't blame on anyone other then those who refuse to believe that the election is over. The same could be said for the dems. The whole "woke" culture is poisonous. Look what's happening in our schools today. The whole "critical race theory" thing, blaming all of our problems on white folks..... Yeah, that's certainly productive.... In any event, it isn't "just" the two-party system, it is what has been happening between them since roughly Obama got elected. It isn't about 'doing the business of the country' any more. It's making sure the 'other guys' can't get their pet legislation passed. The fight over the filibuster. Etc. Used to be, the word "compromise" held some meaning for both parties. Not today. It's a nasty word, and if you utter it, your political career is over. You might not like "woke" culture or many progressive ideas. I don't fully understand it completely either. But without the youth objectively taking a course that dives deep into the understanding of our countries history and just reject it because of personal opinion, how is any future generation suppose to over come social injustice and racism? For "Critical race theory" the purpose is to expose how racism has become a part of everyday life whether we know it or not. People end up making racist decisions that aren't meant to be racist but it ends up perpetually driving existing racism. It might seem very lopsided since a lot of it focuses on how policies in our history have shaped the way generations have grown up to understand how America is today. So it would be easy for a lot of white Americans to feel like it's all about blaming white people for everything. But to turn things around on how conservatives think, how is this any different then blaming immigrants for everything? At least "Critical race theory" has been conceived through the study of analyzing historical legal framework instead of just baselessly blaming things on immigrants. To me this whole attitude is more poisonous then having the youth of today have a better understanding of racism. Also going back to Obama, if I remember correctly it was the Republicans who suddenly decided to make it their main goal to not work with Obama and his administration no matter what, even when conservative policies were purposed. So it's no wonder why we are here today in this political environment.

I will agree with you that it isn't just Trump and his supporters, but it sure seems like a majority of people who continue to spread dangerous misinformation and conspiracy theories are mostly coming from the extreme right wing of the Republican Party. But maybe that's just my perspective. I miss the days when everyone who invested in conspiracies were all about aliens and illuminati. Maybe you don't really care for the direction the country is headed now but I kind of felt this way when Trump was President too. The only reason why the two party system seems like it's failing is because one of the parties has pretty much been completely hi-jacked by one narcissistic man who struggles to regain power no matter the cost. Even if it means to disrupt our current democracy and even destroy it if it means he can get his way. Lets face it, the Republican Party is too easy to influence and practically easy to subjugate a overwhelming amount of misinformed supporters to blindly believe and follow one man. The Republican party as a whole at this point has too much of a base that would support Trump as a complete dictator and believe anything he says no matter how baseless the claims are. Something that too many Republicans don't understand, there is no mechanism to ever reinstate a President no matter how rational you can make an argument or even if there is some type of "proof" of foul play. Once a President is certified it's over and everyone has to move on. The Problem is a majority of the Republican Party won't move on... We have over 90% of elected Republican leaders in Congress who won't even admit Biden is President even though they know better. This is something you can't blame on anyone other then those who refuse to believe that the election is over.

I am very close to your age then. At the time I was still very young being the 1st time I ever voted and extremely uninformed on the scope of politics during the time. It really wasn't till a decade later that I actually became more involved and informed. Clinton in my opinion has been a way better president then any anyone I can remember in my lifetime and then Obama comes in a close 2nd. The irony about the whole affair with Monica Lewinsky is the fact the Republican Party no longer has anywhere close to a high moral ground to stand on when their party now supports candidates that have affairs with porn stars. Back to being on topic. This coming Tuesday we are going to see how much influence on the Republican party Trump actually has anymore because of the Texas special election. Trump has basically been going around the country giving out endorsements like candy to any candidate who he feels is completely loyal to him. Also on his revenge campaign to oust any Republican running for office who has even remotely criticized him in the recent past. Also seems we are getting closer to what will happen to Trump once all his mindless followers see Trump is still no longer President, even after the predicted date of August 13th that Mike Lindell Claims Trump will be reinstated as President. The sad thing is there is no middle ground anymore to reach a person who blindly follows Trump. A relative of mine is completely obsessed on the idea that Trump will be reinstated and believes all the baseless claims Trump keeps brainwashing his followers with. I was recently at a wedding where my nephew got married and the entire time I was there I resisted on talking to his new spouse and her family because they are hardcore Trump supporter. At the wedding party, there was a short verbal fight between relatives over Trump and his baseless claims before everyone was told to stop talking about politics or leave even though it was my Nephews new Bride who brought up politics to begin with. It's difficult to be related to people who have alternate realities on life and even harder when they refuse to be vaccinated for Covid and don't understand why some guests came to the wedding wearing masks.

As we know how elections run are decided per state (which I personally think some things should not.) I an 50 now (well in 2 months anyway) and the first presidential election I was able to vote in was Bill Clinton's first term. I been voting since. At not one election be it city, county or state level have I ever had to have ID or even my voter's registration card. You would given the poll worker your name and they would have you sign the book that had the registration stuff in it. This year we alll voted absentee (again without even requesting it for the primary then were sent a request form for the general and sent that in if we wanted one. I have heard many republicans have issue with srares sending ballots without requests and even just sending in the mail the request form FOR the mail ballot.) Anyway, this year you had to sign the special envelope they provide which your ballot goes into.and your name, address and county of residence, That is it. No ID. Never had nor did we this time, any issues. Oh wait, there was some mail carrier that got arrested maybe at primaries time stealing and opening peoples' ballots to replace then with Trump ballots.. Seems my state's legislature is trying to chage some of the stuff for our election right which was not having issues. Early voting is an issue. (I think it is an issue only because the person might no longer be running in the primary or sometimes things blow up at the end.) Also they moved the in person early voting and the deadline for absentee[. It seems like it was a bunch of to do about nothing as it wasnt really changing to much. That us very different than other states. When I lived up north back in the 90's I also had the same experience voting for the 1st time in my life. I also voted for Clinton and didn't have to show my ID or voter registration card. It was just simply taking my name down and then marking me on a list for showing up. Once I ended up moving from the north down to a southern state, suddenly voting became extremely taxing and somewhat in my opinion had unnecessary restrictions. Participating in an election in a southern State I was required to not only state my name and show them my drivers license but they even asked me questions such as if I was a citizen and what party I was affiliated with as well as confirming my current residence etc... I just found all the questions they asked me to be completely ridiculous. I ended up skipping the next local election and tried to show up a cycle later to vote and I was rejected. They told me I had to register again to participate if I missed the last local cycle. It was extremely discouraging because this is how I found out how this state ran their elections. As Far as I understood back when I lived up north, the state never had any problems with voting fraud and no one ever questioned the integrity of the results despite not having any strict voting laws.

Here is the irony, You are required to have a social security number to even get a state ID or Drivers License to begin with. I was simply looking into a way to make voting easier since already in most states in the south require a photo ID just to participate in the electoral process to begin with. If it came down to it you could just be required to leave your finger print. Anything to make voting easier instead of harder. Also I disagree with your comment on gerrymandering. Even though redistricting is done by both political parties it has no impact on disenfranchising ones ability to vote. Even if a state is oddly drawn out to favor one party over the other that doesn't effect ones ability to vote or not. Also districts can't just be drawn out at will every election cycle and the demographics of a state change drastically enough over time where gerrymandering isn't indefinitely effective.

For one thing, voting should be made easier not harder with less restrictions that don't impact entire communities. There could be many ways to do this without requiring a photo ID or drivers license. One way would be simply having a system where you can just give them the last 4 digits of your social security number and even have them take a finger print. If you have voted and participated in past elections and simply missed one local election, you shouldn't have to register again. Things should be made easier. It's not like they make everyone renew their drivers license every year. If Republican controlled legislators are being so creative on trying to prevent voter fraud the focus shouldn't be on in person fraud since it's extremely rare to begin with. You would think they could easily find cost effective ways to make things easier for everyone to participate instead. But that isn't their goal when you take a look at what they have been doing since 2013. If the Republican Party could get away with adding new restrictions to voting they will do it and they have. I remember back before the 2016 election in my state one of the state legislators that represented where I lived purposed a new voting bill that would completely eliminate anything but in person voting and the polls would only be open on election day. Thankfully that piece of legislation never got close to passing. It's obvious anywhere that the republican party has control of the state legislature, they will do anything they can to pass as many restrictions as possible for voting for the real purpose of trying to shrink the electorate. These new voting laws that the southern states are currently passing will do nothing to prevent any future fraud, because there has never been a huge problem before with in person voter fraud in our country.

It's easy for one to think it's propaganda If you are use to having the need for a drivers license. There have been many studies done that have found white voters are more likely to own driver's licenses over all other demographic groups in America specifically Latino and Hispanic Voters. Other studies around the nation found similar results with where specifically in Wisconsin only about half of African American and Hispanic citizens owned ID's to vote. This is not because they are illegal immigrants either. On top of all this, these new laws makes it more difficult for the elderly to participate too. Are we to become a nation that suddenly decides once you get to a certain age that voting becomes less important to you then it did before? Generally it's easy for anyone to vote using forms of identification, with the exception of the Elderly, minorities, and the poor. Now you might ask why it's so difficult for someone who doesn't have an ID to get one? It all come back to being poor. In general, minority voters are less likely to own a driver's licenses because they are poor living in dense populated urban areas. If you don't own a car, there isn't much of a need for one because they will usually take a bus, subway, or walk to where ever they need to get to. This same logic applies to a majority of students for exactly the same reasons. Another thing you have to take in consideration is the fact in order to participate in the electoral process you 1st have to register too. These new laws are adding extra burdens and making it more difficult for one to get registered at all. There is no logical reason why voting and registering to vote should be shortened and condensed into a smaller time frame. Just looking at the exit polls on every election in the recent past voter turn out is surging. It makes no sense for reduction of opening hours as well as specifically closing polls on election night at the exact hour of closing even if you are still waiting in line and have been for hours. This all falls back on when Supreme Court had weakened the voting-discrimination law in 2013. Over 1,200 polling places in the south have closed down specifically where residence are predominantly African Americans and Hispanic. As I have stated in the past, some of these communities are only left with one polling place left to vote and in several extreme examples they purposely move their only polling place to vote completely outside of it's town. Making it extremely inconvenient for anyone to vote or even get registered if you are expected to be registered before election night. Republican controlled legislators have done all these things on purpose. Now speaking from a personal perspective, I am an Asian American that currently lives in a highly populated minority community. Since I have moved to where I specifically live, The Republican controlled legislature in my state has closed down 3 polling places I think back in 2013. I generally don't have a problem using a Photo ID to use when I go voting but other restriction that have been made to make it harder for me to participate. As an example, if you even miss one local election cycle to vote, you are automatically removed from the roster and are expected to have to get registered again before you vote the next election. This is a completely different experience for me when I use to live upstate North living in a predominantly white community. There was over 4 places I could go to vote on election night. I wouldn't need an ID if I was already registered to vote and I could get registered at the same time when I did go to vote. If I missed a cycle to vote they wouldn't automatically make me have to get registered again either. At most I would only need to wait 15 minutes to vote compared where I live now it can take up to 2 to 3 hours during a national election cycle. My sister lives in the same state as I do but lives in a more predominantly populated white community. For her she has several more polling places she could go to vote and she told me the most she has ever waited in line to vote was only 10 minutes during a national election cycle. I should elaborate and say this was all before 2020 because this last election cycle I managed to get an absentee ballot due to the Covid pandemic and was able to to simply mail it in. It wasn't a very easy task because I had to request it super early where it has to be 90 days before election night and also had to mail it in 7 days before the end of the election. I barely made the cut off date due to having to have proof of having a disability or health concern that would hinder my ability to access the ballet box in person. I simply just made up an excuse and got my Doctor to sign off on "raspatory issues" which in all matters was only because I have asthma and severe allergies. Originally I wasn't expecting to get an absentee ballot but if it came down to me needing to show up in person during the Covid pandemic and how bad it was where I live, I probably would have just stayed home and not voted this last cycle at all.

Both the Republican Party and the Democratic Party are pretty much guilty when it comes to redistricting specifically to Gerrymandering. Putting this aside when it comes to local elections it's not meant for the purpose of disenfranchising. Even if you try to make an argument of trying to add more restrictions to prevent fraud, it inadvertently or not prevents and excludes citizens who should actually be qualify to participate in the electoral process and it just mostly discourages them. Just recently there was a gun shooting close to where I live where a person was killed and shot by a homeless man who had the legal right to actually own the fire arm he ended up using. It's a bit crazy that we live in a country where certain states protect the rights for even people who don't have an official resident to own a deadly weapon without registration, yet if such a person wanted to participate in the electoral process, they would be totally denied. Adding news laws and requirements to vote in the prevention of fraud that was never even considered a problem that would ever even come close to effecting any outcome is completely pointless unless the purpose is to only restrict and make voting harder for certain demographics. Plus these new laws won't even stop Fraud anyways, since most actual election fraud is mostly clerical errors that are in most cases quickly corrected. A comprehensive study done that was published in the Washington Post between 2000 and 2014 even found only 31 credible instances of impersonation fraud out of over a billion ballots that were casted. Adding new voting restrictions to solve a problem that has never been a problem before is like suddenly making it more difficult to buy over the counter drugs because there is the chance someone could die from simply taking aspirin.

I wasn't expecting a reply but to elaborate on how Republicans are trying to shrink the electorate, currently in Texas there are two new election bills that are being under consideration in the House and Senate. From what I understand is they are trying to eliminate "drive-thru" and 24 hour early voting in areas that are usually predominantly in favor of Democratic support while expanding hours to medium sized counties that are predominantly high in Republican support. They want to make more identification requirements then there already are if you vote by mail. As well as increase criminal penalties for election officials who don't follow regulations. But on top of all this non-sense where voter fraud is basically a non-existing issue that couldn't really even minutely effected any result in the past, they also plan on giving more powers to poll watchers that could effectively intimidate people who wish to vote and be in a position where they would be allowed to decide if you are allowed to vote or not. Republicans only line of defense against a growing African American and Hispanic demographic of people who favorably vote Democratic is to consistently try to shrink the electorate where they can get away with it through legislation restricting their rights to vote in obvious under handed ways. The reality is Republicans have never thought voter fraud has ever been any real issue that could effect any kind of outcome. But they want people to believe this lie in order to propagate legislation that directly harms voter turnout in favor of Democratic support. The real issue the Republican party has is their platform! Unless they drastically change face and start promoting policies that would attract more diversity of voters such as African Americans, Hispanics, Asians, etc... The Republican party is going to fail in the long run. In less then a decade it's estimated that America's white citizenship will be outnumbered by other increasingly growing minority citizenship demographics. Republicans fear the day that minority citizens in America will be equal to or more then white citizens living America.

I am not trying to have a go at you, but have you ever considered the possibility of what you have come to believe or know as the "truth" being the actual misguided propaganda? You claim to have "never had the misfortune to actually come into contact with anyone who does", assuming that is someone who contradicts the beliefs you know as the "truth". But if an over whelming majority of the population regardless of who you have had contact with believes something contrary to your belief, shouldn't you take the time to question it or even do the research to find something that either contradicts or enforces that belief? Are you just afraid or unwilling to believe something else? Now I don't expect you to answer my questions. In fact the only purpose of even asking you these questions is to help make you see things from a different perspective. Propaganda alone shouldn't sway ones beliefs or known truths. But looking from an outside prospective it's hard to believe Biden could win over 87% of the African American vote in the 2020 Election if there was even a slightest chance that truly a majority of people believe Biden is some racist and thinks he hates black people. In fact the 2020 election exit polls suggest that Biden won over 90% of African American voters in almost every county across the nation. It's no wonder why Republicans are trying to execute as many voter restrictions across the nation in the guise of protection from fraud. As it is it's undeniably harder for minorities to vote in this country. The reality is, Republicans fear there will come a point when they will never win Nationally again unless they manage to keep shrinking the electorate. If the GOP nominates Trump to run as their candidate in the 2024 election I would be completely shocked if he would even have a chance of winning the Presidency again. Trump has been twice Impeached, left the office in disgrace, broke a long lasting tradition of a peaceful transition of power, etc... Trump today as an actual Presidential candidate would be exponentially more toxic of a candidate then Hillary ever was. Now stating all this I can see where the inception of all this propaganda is coming from. The object seems to me that someone is trying to get enough people to start to believe President Biden is some how racist before the beginning of the 2024 election cycle to chip away at his African American support. What better way to do this then to try to convince people of your own "belief". Why do you think it is harder for minority to vote in United States? States all across the American South have closed nearly 1,200 polling places since the Supreme Court has weakened the voting-discrimination law in 2013 specifically targeting communities of where African Americans and Hispanic predominantly make up the larger majority of residence that qualifies to participate. In some Republican controlled state legislators they have intentionally closed down all but one polling place for voters that are largely populated by African American and Hispanics. These minority communities are left with only one place to vote and are leaving them with minimal opening hours for a less then a reasonable time compared to their other more easily accessed polling places else where in their states that are predominantly populated with a majority of Caucasian residence. Some of the most populated counties where Caucasian make up over 90% of the population have more then enough polling places open during election season and less of a wait time to vote. As an example Dodge City in Kansas where Hispanics now make up over 60 percent of it's population has moved it's only polling place completely outside of it's town and only left opened for limited amount of hours near election time. This makes it extremely difficult for people who live there to even access the ballot box when it comes time to even vote. Not to mention inconvenient to actually even register to vote alone. States in the south have impose a range of restrictions, from shorter voting hours to photo-ID requirements even though turnout has surged in recent elections. States like Arizona, and Georgia have all endured long waits to cast ballots during election time specifically where a majority of it's population is predominantly Hispanic and African American. This is done by design by states that have a Republican controlled legislator to specifically target minority communities as an effort to shrink the electorate where support of Democratic turn out is usually high.

I am not trying to have a go at you, but have you ever considered the possibility of what you have come to believe or know as the "truth" being the actual misguided propaganda? You claim to have "never had the misfortune to actually come into contact with anyone who does", assuming that is someone who contradicts the beliefs you know as the "truth". But if an over whelming majority of the population regardless of who you have had contact with believes something contrary to your belief, shouldn't you take the time to question it or even do the research to find something that either contradicts or enforces that belief? Are you just afraid or unwilling to believe something else? Now I don't expect you to answer my questions. In fact the only purpose of even asking you these questions is to help make you see things from a different perspective. Propaganda alone shouldn't sway ones beliefs or known truths. But looking from an outside prospective it's hard to believe Biden could win over 87% of the African American vote in the 2020 Election if there was even a slightest chance that truly a majority of people believe Biden is some racist and thinks he hates black people. In fact the 2020 election exit polls suggest that Biden won over 90% of African American voters in almost every county across the nation. It's no wonder why Republicans are trying to execute as many voter restrictions across the nation in the guise of protection from fraud. As it is it's undeniably harder for minorities to vote in this country. The reality is, Republicans fear there will come a point when they will never win Nationally again unless they manage to keep shrinking the electorate. If the GOP nominates Trump to run as their candidate in the 2024 election I would be completely shocked if he would even have a chance of winning the Presidency again. Trump has been twice Impeached, left the office in disgrace, broke a long lasting tradition of a peaceful transition of power, etc... Trump today as an actual Presidential candidate would be exponentially more toxic of a candidate then Hillary ever was. Now stating all this I can see where the inception of all this propaganda is coming from. The object seems to me that someone is trying to get enough people to start to believe President Biden is some how racist before the beginning of the 2024 election cycle to chip away at his African American support. What better way to do this then to try to convince people of your own "belief".

There is a complete disconnect on historical teachings depending on where you live I guess and to some degree of the politicizing historical events to fit what ever narrative one wishes to believe. It reminds me of trying to watch a Dinesh D'Souza film where 99% of it was just pure propaganda trying to disguise itself as a historical documentary. I forget which film it was because I was at a friends party who got one of Dinesh D'Souza films as a joke present. We ended watching some of the film while we were drinking and completely laughing our asses off listening to Dinesh D'Souza completely whitewash American history with some weird alternative reality. Where even in the narration, Dinesh D'Souza seems to completely ignore the fact that the Republican Party and the Democratic Party completely switched platforms somewhere during the 20th century. Which realigned and proliferated a majority of African Americans to support Democratic policies. Basically if Lincoln was alive today, he probably would not still be a Republican.

If you are referring to the association of Biden's relationship with Senator Robert Byrd, I can understand your confusion. Yet it's my suspicion that you seem to be confused with what ever propaganda you might have read into and tricked into believing some complete misinformation. Senator Robert Byrd was once affiliated with the KKK but has long renounced his ties and has even apologized and recognized his own flaws in his past life. Senator Robert Byrd even became a dynamic supporter of the Civil Rights Act. Not sure what "other" members of the KKK or white supremacists you might be referring to because even doing a simple google search there isn't any thing else I could find with any credibility what so ever. I not trying to convince you or anyone else what to believe. You can easily take the time to google search yourself. From what I have gathered Biden is a far cry from being in the least bit racially discriminating. It's also worth noting in the 2020 Presidential election, President Biden won specifically because of Black voters. President Biden's electoral landside victory was because he took over 87% of African American voters over Trump's measly 12%. If you are trying to convince anyone that Biden is some how a racist, you should try to find that 87% who did vote for President Biden.

I am sure you all have heard recently Trump's latest stunt to be "relevant" by trying to sue Facebook, YouTube, and twitter suddenly out of the blue. In my opinion I really think this stunt is just to distract from his actual real legal problems with his Organization being charged with serious fraudulent tax evasion for the past 15 years. According to several news sources online that I have read he is claiming it to be a class action suit that he will be leading. So he has basically conned his followers to even pay for such a ridiculous law suit. Trump seems to be accusing these tech giants over censorship claiming they ceased to be private platforms because they run on public domains? I am still a bit unclear on exactly what Trump is actually accusing these companies for and on what legal grounds, but it's pretty obvious it all has to do with him being banned from twitter 6 months ago and being suspended from YouTube for at least two years. It's obvious these companies are privately owned. Just because they run in the public domain doesn't mean they are open public forums for everyone to use freely. Before you sign up on any of their platforms you agree to their terms of use. I think I have said this before, Twitter could effectively ban Trump just because they don't like him and totally get away with it. I am no legal expert but to me this has nothing to do with free speech or censorship. These platforms are not obligated to cater to everyone just because they operate publicly. Trump and his followers have the right to free speech just they have to find other ways to exercise their First Amendment rights without using their platforms, if they think they are being censored. As absurd as the suit might seem I don't even see what Trump even wants to accomplish if anything, other then revenge and to distract from his real legal problems. It's just really scary that Trump even out of office is still currently the head of the Republican party and has enough followers who will blindly believe and do anything he says. It's obviously enough pull in the Republican Party to have almost every Republican in office scared to contradict him or even ever get on his bad side. Not even close to half of Republicans in Congress will publicly say that Joe Biden Won the election and is currently President. There is also the claim that Mike Lindell (The MyPillow dude) has been making that by August 13th Trump will be Reinstated as President. And recently Trump at his rallies has been echoing this ludicrous pipe dream to his followers. I am beginning to wonder if there is going to be something along the lines of another violent January 6th capital insurrection attempt in August, when all his blind followers realize Trump is still no longer President after the 13th.

Trouble is, we are headed in that direction. We have a SERIOUSLY stratified society at the moment, and the gap between the haves, and the have-nots, grows wider every year. Then we have the western states competing for water... and the likelihood that it is only going to get worse. And within that, we have farmers that have already been told they aren't going to be getting their irrigation water..... Then we have the racial tensions that are only increasing.... Civil war doesn't necessarily have to be something that is 'planned' either. It doesn't have to be some conspiracy of any sort. It could just be the result of a series of decisions by various parties that escalate a situation, and it simply gets out of hand.... There is a LOT going on here, and a fair bit of ain't good. :smile: Of course, if the economy improves, the pandemic subsides, we may dodge that particular bullet, for a while..... Until the next major crisis comes about. And you know it will. But then, maybe economic collapse is the more likely scenario? The government can't keep spending money they don't have before folks figure out that they are not EVER going to see their money back. That would certainly be interesting..... (and I hope I don't live to see it.....) Of course, China could make a couple financial moves, and totally tank our economy. They don't have the motivation to do so, as yet.... but, there may come a time when removing us as a world power, is more advantageous to them, than having us as a trade partner..... This is just my own opinion, a lot of what has happened that has drastically diminished the quality of living in the past few decades is mostly due to Republican policies for their specific goal to shrink the government and mirror policies based on religious beliefs as well as things that help the rich get richer. It was the Republican party that pushed for Citizens United that effectively change political campaigning into the lucrative business machine that it is today. Our society has become even more stratified due to Republican policies that favored giving the rich and big companies big tax breaks. A lot of the environmental issues we created are due to Republican polices that either deregulate agencies that closely monitor and police companies from polluting the air and land or completely dissolving government bureaucracies that specifically deal with any public health crisis. I could go on but I won't... Now saying this, the Democrats also have their fair share of things that I could complain about too. But specifically a lot of the economic problems we face today are completely to blame due to Republican policies. We could debate all day and night about wedge issues on guns, abortion, immigration, healthcare, etc... but that won't really get us anywhere. The political atmosphere has gotten so extreme that if you politically lean slightly to the right you are suddenly labeled a "Nazi". If you happen to slightly lean to the left suddenly you are also labeled a "Nazi". Call it good luck or bad luck or even bad timing, Republican Presidents in office haven't had a good run on the national stage when it comes to trying to advert any economic crisis the last few decades. On the other hand when a Democrat has been elected President there is a clear good record they hold from letting things economically go to total s***. If you are really worried about some economic collapse scenario, it would most likely happen under a Republican President, if the last 4 decades has anything to say about it.

You are assuming that the US armed forces would act against US citizens, on US soil. US law FORBIDS just such an occurrence. In order to use the military to quell any 'unrest', those laws would first need to be changed... A giant clue as to what was coming next. I would also point out, that the US Military, with all it's might, and technology, LOST the war in Afghanistan against folks no better armed than the average american citizen. Actually the insurrection act can be made to do this. It has been used before but almost always with gubernatorial request and I believe it is National Guard troops or Title X forces (like the Navy Seals or some group like that) not regular military. But I'm not sure that would be a substantial difference. A few times it has been used sans gubernatorial request has been times of massive violent protest or for protection like when they were integrating schools. It is pretty wide open language and it has typically been very politically detrimental to use for aggressive action against citizenry without extraordinary reasons. Trump was just pulled back from this during the Black Lives Matter protests. I think he would have done so had he not found some other means to engage, via other executive paramilitary departments. The last time it was used was in the 1992 riots in LA when it was requested by the governor , Pete Wilson because of the out of control violence after the LAPD were acquitted. 63 people were killed as a result of the violence there. So I absolutely think it can be used for this purpose, but with the limited conditions set in the act. Still, it is a powerful political tool at the complete discretion of a president. If you have a president who is willing to ignore political pressure, a congress unwilling to act against the president and a military trained to take orders from their commander-in-chief (as they are supposed to do) then you have a perfect storm. I think the main impediment Trump faced was not any political pressure he felt (he did not, even the few times his party stood up to him) was simply the sheer incompetence he and those he put around him had. I do not believe the safety rails of democracy really held. I think his using idiots like Rudy Giuliani was what made him unsuccessful. The Capital Riots showed how far republicans are willing to go, and still go, even after their lives were directly threatened. I honestly believe that if not for covid, Donald Trump would still be president. It took the deaths of hundreds of thousands of people and he still managed over 47% of the vote. How much would he have done as a second-term president, who was free of political blow back as someone not able to run for re-election, who survived 2 impeachment convictions and a congress and supreme court unable or unwilling to provide checks and balances. I think congress made this problem long ago by passing the political buck, unwilling to make decisions, allowing the office of the presidency more power that could be used against them just to stay in office and power. We should not have an elected official who does not win the majority of the popular vote be in office. As political parties become more tribal and dug in this will happen more and more often. The hypocracy knows no bounds. I dreaded to have seen (or see) what an unfettered Donald Trump would/will do. I dread even more a president, from whatever party, who is just shy of the age to run that has watched and learned from that presidency. One that is far less incompetent and surrounds themselves with people who are intelligent and experts in their fields. The collective 'We' have learned nothing. But I'm damn sure 'somebody's has. Thing is, military members swear an oath NOT to the president, but, to the constitution. They are only required to follow LAWFUL orders, and cannot be punished for disobeying orders that aren't. Then you run into the whole problem of, which side are the various commanders going to take? If General Smith believes what the folks up in arms are correct in what they are doing, then he isn't going to raise arms against them. Sure, some will, but, a lot won't. And then you need to look at the makeup of the folks that will be doing the actual shooting. (in the military) They are young kids. How inclined do you think they are going to be, to fire into a crowd of their friends and neighbors?? Still and all, even if the military does get involved, it's a war they won't be able to win. It will just drag on, and the body count will grow. Just like afghanistan. America is far from being any resemblance to an Afghanistan. Giving you the benefit of the doubt of saying actual sizable amount of military personnel and generals actually decided to rebel against the Government, they still wouldn't have the resources or supplies to win any real open battle if there was some war on U.S. soil today. Also this isn't the 1800's, simply having the right to bare arms today to rebel against the government wouldn't be enough. Most of the time today if there was any cause of a real violent threat to the government, our intelligence agencies would quickly squash the threat before it got down to any kind of real violent act. Regardless of what you might think, a large majority of people in America live a life that they simply wouldn't just completely throw away. People still have children and families that go to school and have jobs. For a real civil war to happen there would have to be a purpose and some type of plan to what would follow after. There isn't a big enough unified reason for anyone in America to simply throw away everything they have just to basically bring down our current government. "lets rebel and bring a civil war on America just to get Trump back in power" isn't a winning rally cry to recruit enough people into taking up arms willing to throw away their lives for such a cause. Things would have to be incredibly bad in our country where the quality of living was diminished to the point of a 3rd world country in order for there to be a real reason for enough people to give up their lives to fight to over throw the government.

@HeyYou If you seriously think things will devolve into some devastating violent situation such as a "Civil War", taking in consideration how modernize civilization has become and how technology has evolved and advanced, chances are the losing team would be those trying to oppose who ever is ruling the current government. The 2nd amendment is a bit laughable in the 21st century because no grass roots militia could ever be strong enough oppose any of the U.S. armed forces. Even if there was enough people willing to die to try to over throw the government, it would only take one aircraft or even a missile to completely obliterate any real sizable forceful rebellion. If there was ever a real "Civil War" it would have to be completely covert and the rebels would all be forced into hiding underground and go completely dark like Bin Laden. likely they would be found by the NSA or CIA or any of the other national intelligence agencies and simply be labeled as terrorist. Any real serious violent rebellion against the government in the U.S. would probably be quickly squashed. In conclusion there isn't enough people in America actually willing to die just to get Trump put back into office. In reality, things would have to be really really bad for there to be any real struggle to overthrow the government. When I mean really really bad, I mean something like over 99% of the country would have to be living in poverty or something extreme like that.

Until the day you actually see a sizable amount of Republican officials in congress completely break away from pandering to Trump and his base, Trump will have and keep the entire Republican Party completely under his control. Nothing will change until over half of Republican representatives currently in office finally decide Trump isn't worth trying to publicly defend anymore. In private, almost every Republican in Washington really wishes Trump would just go away. It's just astonishing how so many Republicans in office fear a man who basically has absolute no real power anymore and are willing to throw away their dignity and potentially get thrown away like many others who have served under him just to help get him back into power.

Maybe we should just give him another television series, so he will stay out of politics........ I have a Theory. Trump wouldn't be satisfied simply by someone giving him his own television series. Besides wealth, this is man who has always strived for as much power as he can possibly get. By America electing him even once, it has embolden him and has given this man a taste of real power. He won't admit to being a loser and is willing to make up any excuse to stay politically relevant by holding his thumb over the entire Republican Party if it means he has a chance at getting that kind of power back. Since there happens to be over a majority of Republican voters who seem to follow this man blindly without question, he basically is the Republican Party now. At this point, the only way this man is really going to go away is if one day he believes he will never become President again. But we all know this probably won't happen so Republican Party is stuck with him and they kind of deserve it for emboldening him in the 1st place. The Republican Party was hi-jacked by Trump the moment America elected him in 2016.