JoeWeber

Um, I think he meant P.E. as in Professional Engineer.

I disagree, possibly owing to our having different opinions on whether purposefully giving a person an equal shot at an opportunity that was denied their father or mother because of skin color, sex, or sexual orientation is discrimination of the same feather or even something other than discrimination. The first violinist example strikes me as specious. It wouldn't happen anymore than requiring that less competent violinists be seated for the easier songs. In any case, that's not the problem. The problem, as I see it, is denying entry to music school to someone because they aren't the correct sex or color or height or are obviously careless about living like skydivers. Your point about "patronizing one generation to 'correct' past injustices, real or perceived," makes no sense to me. One generation always follows the previous generation, and you cannot change the past: you can stop a thing from happening, but you cannot fix a problem before it happens. In that case you or someone else must fix it later. I haven't seen very many perfect solutions in my life and while these social equality efforts are sometimes, and inarguably, a bit messy and imprecise, I still think it's the best choice if fairness is the goal. That said, it more and more appears that those efforts have only been masking our true natures and not making any real or endurable changes to build on and that those of us who think a world where the big kids should be able to take the little kids' candy without penalty or redress are going to win the day.

I was attempting to address woke as the pejorative term currently used by the right to describe caring about others but not getting paid for your concerns.

Sure, that's the point. Many of us knew it but simply ignored it.

Woke as it is embraced by many is too all encompassing. For example, I don't think allowing or encouraging gender bending among kids, especially the permanent stuff makes sense. I do think treating our gay friends and citizens with absolute equality is the right thing. I also believe that recognizing societal injustices and making some accommodations that help level the playing field is right. I don't think that as a matter of policy candidates with great ability should be sidelined simply because more people are needed in a different column. Too far is never good policy and too far is now where the right is going in the false belief that DEI is ruining the world.

.....that Biden was now too old and decrepit to run again.... or something softer?

Most of us here are insulated from Trumps new world by age or money. In reality it's been that way for a long time. We look at the better good in terms of societal fairness and a system that allows for economic success but without the sacrifice of equity. So much for the good fight. Unless it gets to where the Black Maria pulls into the driveway some night the fundamentals of my life won't change much except I'll pay less tax. Also, and I suspect this will be generally true for many of us, unless something really serious develops that makes the political landscape more interesting and less depressing I'll gradually check out.

Yep, the perfect breeding ground for wanna be autocrats. Even if the US is able to turn this around a bit in the next decade or so it seems forgone that an undemocratic world is the future: you can't make the electorate dumb and then expect them to participate smartly.

Old and demented as Biden might be I still believe he'd be better than Trump. Unfortunately it is that shallow belief that blinded me to the reality that he is old and demented and no one I should have supported in 2024. Furthermore, I could have been public in my opposition and was not. Beto O'Rourke is now saying that Biden failed us in the most important job he had by running. Sure, agreed, but then where the F was he in 2023 using his pulpit when it might have mattered? I'm simply taking the same as my personal responsibility and suggesting that others might make the same consideration.

Also, WE as in we self flagellating liberal reality denialists who easily could have been posting here a year or two ago that Biden was now too old and decrepit to run again instead of pretending otherwise. We who could have been writing our D representatives en masse again and again informing them that we had no intention of supporting Biden again in 2024. We who should have been clever enough to realize that our self serving, and already partially mummified, senior leaders like Pelosi, Cardin, Durbin, Blumenthal or Feinstein who hung on until she died of old age were never going to say Biden was too old to run again. The point I am remaking is that it's way too easy to blame dumb farmers who still have Trump 2024 banners on their barns instead of owning the major role we liberals played in seating this horrific administration.

Thanks for the insight. Indeed, the whole unfortunate mess is far less terrifying when viewed as just another comedic debacle.

Yes, I just saw that. Seems to me that we need to accept there isn't anything we can do that will stop Trump and the right now. Sure, if the nation rises up in protest as happened with Vietnam and during the Civil Rights Movement but those took time and a willingness to suffer that doesn't seem on offer these days. I expect most will just hang on, the deluded hoping for a miracle and the realists just hoping for saner Republican in 2028.

So, from your perch how do you see this playing out over the next 4 years?

I'm not arguing that truth. Earlier here I said: "No. But he wasn’t a national disaster in term one. Who knows who said what about running again. Probably no one." To be clearer, I absolutely fault D's in power for standing by and doing nothing effective, if they did anything, to dissuade him from running. It's a hot mess of our own making, that's the bottom line.

I passed through Red state Ohio last week and caught part of a Trump ad on tv. It was just as if they were extolling the virtues of a hero who arrived just in time to save us. Every last action and policy was working perfectly, as in breathlessly, beyond belief etc. etc. etc, closing with Trump majestically looking up and to the future. Of course the tariffs were bringing in billions. They aren't just relying on partisan news and their voters ignorance, they are taking a page from the fascist playbook. They are in control and they have no intention of letting democracy get in the way this time around. We can be as demoralized as we like pointing out facts like he is a con man and corrupt but his supporters just do not care. In fact, I think they like it. Next up: Democrats, recognizing their own impotence, start pointing out the good in all that is happening. The world is changed.

Happens anyway and 21 isn’t a big number. Until it gets into several hundred dead or more no one will see dots worth connecting, if even they can be. As long as Kentucky can’t access blue state dollars to ease the pain, we’re good.

As you so eloquently and, I must say, accurately pointed out I would have voted for a potato on a stick instead of Trump. Neither Biden or Harris were on my top 50 list but for sure Trump was at the top of my never list. I saw him for what he is and nothing since his reelection causes me to rethink that perception. However, if you didn’t see him for what he is or thought it was all a joke about destroying NATO or being a dictator from day one or if you were ignorant of the Supreme Court immunity decision, or thought that was a joke too, then for you it wasn’t a harder decision than one between a blowhard and a doddering old fool. We can blame Republicans all we want but history will show that we did this to ourselves and to our country and the world. It’s all now in retrospect but the truth is that he looked old and acted old. The truth is that we blew off the Hur report. The truth is that we should have known he wasn’t good for anything more than beating Trump one time. And we should have acted on that fact. Just the way it is, like it or not.

Tell me that’s the Onion. Please.

The argument that Biden's selfishness gave us President Trump is probably valid. He never should have sought a second term. The field should have been open from his second year. Biden's crime was hanging on, Trumps crimes are different and worse. Even in light of knowing Biden's diminished state he would have still been a better choice and that sucks.

No. But he wasn’t a national disaster in term one. Who knows who said what about running again. Probably no one.

Even more painful is knowing our R elected officials will do nothing. Trump is obviously not all there and he has control of our nuclear weapons and economic policies. He can start wars or destroy alliances on a whim, and they will do nothing.

We all know.

Clever. I wonder if any downsides were revealed. Anyway, Onion or not: "I won on the border. And I won on groceries. It's a very simple word: groceries. Like, almost, who uses the word — I started using the word — the groceries," Trump told "Meet the Press" in December. “It’s such an old-fashioned term but a beautiful term: groceries," Trump mused during his "Liberation Day" speech in April that announced tariffs. "It sort of says a bag with different things in it." "We have, uh, costs are way down. Groceries are — we have a term 'groceries.' It's an old term, but it means basically what you're buying, food. It's a pretty accurate term, but it's an old-fashioned sound; but groceries are down. Costs are down. Eggs are down. They were — the first week, they were hitting me with eggs are up 200%. And now they're down to a number that is amazing — down 97-98% from where they were." Did someone drive him by a grocery store one day and foolishly mentioned that was where voters bought food?

That's all well and good but unfortunately the choices we were offered last time were not well and good.

Sure but it's not same same in my opinion: the far right are vastly more corrosive to the sort of society that I prefer. Also, I'd wager that in addition to listening to you they were also humoring you. I believe we aren't dissuading many, if any, MAGA's now that they feel empowered and I have no intention of wasting time on the off chance I can turn one or two who became enlightened after their faces were chewed off. We simply need to humor them as we drift to the middle, pretending to or not, and hope they have had their fill of Trumpism when alone in the voting booth, and put up candidates for whom they'll vote.