2023-2024 Presidential, senate, house, state and city election thread

[caltrek]

More Fact Checking of Trump
June 28, 2024

Extract:

(BBC) Is Biden planning to quadruple taxes?

CLAIM: Trump said that Biden “wants to raise your taxes by four times... He wants the Trump tax cuts to expire".

VERDICT: President Biden’s most recent US budget makes no reference to the quadrupling of taxes for ordinary households. In fact, it proposes tax cuts for families earning less than $400,000 a year, along with increases for higher earners.

Trump introduced sweeping tax cuts in 2017, and many of these are due to expire in 2025.

Even if these aren’t extended, that wouldn’t amount to anything like a four-fold increase in household taxation.

An analysis carried out by the Tax Policy Center based on the 2024 Budget concluded that the top 1% of earners would see an increase in taxation of 9.7%.

Read more here: https://www.msn.com/en-us/news/world/i ... gNewsSerp

[weatheriscool]

Now this is something you don't see very often!

[Cyber_Rebel]

Let us not kid ourselves. Another Trump term will be an unmitigated disaster for many.

Even if the sun dose rise.

Good post. It's worth noting I'm not saying every decision is meaningless in a deterministic sense. The realities you mentioned are evident that things will trend towards better, regardless of regressive ideologies. From what I remember about your civic service, you don't need to be told that the POTUS is not the end all be all I imagine. Trump cannot "purge" the government even if he wanted to, nor enact a lot of the so-called Project 2025 without significant capital and coordination with elites.

If people wish to protect democracy as they claim to, then they should focus on reforming said systems which Trump might be exploiting in the first place, and not merely safeguarding them as current. As for CNN, they like any other news network benefit from the ratings of Trump's shenanigans. I would say most news organizations are never inherently impartial nor entirely rational for the sake of self-serving interest.

[wjfox]

[spryfusion]

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[weatheriscool]

[wjfox]

[weatheriscool]

[Ozzie guy]

Biden might win but Trump probably will.
Replacing Biden with someone else now (who after posting I just remembered is literally the president) will reduce the odds that democrats win nothing could be seen as weaker than changing (THE PRESIDENT) leader of the party at this point and people won't know much about the person replacing him.

I don't know what caused Biden to be chosen back in 2020 I imagine most if not all the democrat candidates were better options for winning and the American center left can pick someone who is "reasonable" and not "crazy like Bernie" without them being on the edge of becoming senile.

[firestar464]

Tbh though it might give the Dems a image reboot if they switch to say, someone like Newsom.

[weatheriscool]

[Tadasuke]

My prediction is that if Trump wins, this forum will be at least in 30% about Trump and everything connected to him being a president.

Wow, I really thought (let's say in 2009 or 2010 for example), that in 2024 we would be mostly discussing cures for illnesses, human augmentation, artificial intelligence, robotics, 3D printing all kinds of stuff, space exploration, virtual and augmented reality as well as new food sources like precision fermentation or vertical automated hydroponics.

In 2023 and 2024 I every day tell myself that we don't deserve to live in a nice world, because of how dumb and bad we are, so we had it coming, but we were too stupid, ignorant and bad to truly see it. All the technology just to create more chaos. That's who we are. Despicable creatures.

[Cyber_Rebel]

Trump potentially winning the presidency does not preclude nor invalidate "cures for illnesses, human augmentation, artificial intelligence, robotics, space-exploration, etc." All of this will still be happening regardless of who wins the election, which was my entire original point. I would even wager more so in the case for potential AGI, as the rhetoric would shift towards having it before China does. Not much different than right now in that sense to be honest.

Humanity is a dualistic animal and always has been. There will still be many things the forum will focus on this decade other than American political chaos, which itself is just one election out of many. Humanity shouldn't be damned just because a whopping 4.23% of the world's population can't get their electoral shit together.

We should start focusing on more positive breakthroughs than just A.I., as there's great things happening in the biological spere as well. This post is not a form of attack either, Tadasuke, but I think keeping a mentally positive frame of mind is overall healthier than defeatism.

[firestar464]

Trump will screw up a lot of things, but the rest of the world might still hold the line. The loss of American contributions, however, will greatly damage progress.

As for AGI, expect Trump to buoy companies like xAI (which is going to produce a pretty misaligned AGI), or outright ban it because <insert deranged trump rant about robots electrocuting people or something>. This is assuming America hasn't fallen into civil war

[spryfusion]

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[caltrek]

Trump potentially winning the presidency does not preclude nor invalidate "cures for illnesses, human augmentation, artificial intelligence, robotics, space-exploration, etc." All of this will still be happening regardless of who wins the election, which was my entire original point....

Put in those terms, I wholeheartedly agree with you.

There are many roles that we play besides just being voters or agents trying to affect the voting decisions of others. For example, we also function as workers, consumers, and investors. Some are even involved in research and development, a subdivision of "workers." These things can be affected at the margins by political processes but will likely continue at their core.

In The Carbon War (1999) by Jeremy Leggett he describes his efforts to encourage governments to address the issue of global warming. He describes how he came to decide to shift his focus to the development of solar power as an alternative energy source. We now see the favorable results of the efforts of Leggett and like-minded scientists, engineers, and investors.

If one just reads this thread and no other in this forum, one might conclude that I am obsessed with elections above all else. Check out other threads and one will read of the development of sustainable energy sources and other ecological practices. A loss to Trump will signal the need to redouble efforts in those other fields. Still, it would be nice to have a government supporting such efforts rather than one in partial opposition.

[caltrek]

60% of Voters want Biden Replaced as Candidate after Debate
by Lauren Floyd

June 29, 2024

Introduction:

(Axios) A majority of voters — 60% — say President Biden should "definitely" or "probably" be replaced as the Democratic candidate following his performance in Thursday's debate, per a Morning Consult poll released to Axios Friday.

Why it matters: Findings from the poll of 2,068 respondents echoed whispers from Democrats about the prospect of replacing Biden as the Democratic presidential candidate.

• Of Democratic voters, 21% say Biden should "definitely not" be replaced, and 20% say "probably not."

When the survey asked respondents to choose between Biden and former President Trump, 45% chose the president and 44% chose the former commander-in-chief.

• The results were similar to those from a poll following Trump's criminal conviction on 34 felony counts of falsifying business records linked to a $130,000 hush money payment.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2024/06/29/biden ... nt-poll

caltrek’s comment: My initial response to the idea of Biden stepping aside was that it was too late to consider that option. He should have done that before the primary season began so that voters would have an opportunity to weigh in on the selection of an alternate candidate. Still, if there is such a groundswell perhaps Biden should consider this move. Freeing his delegates to select another candidate would likely mean a choice that would be committed to carry on with Biden’s core policies. It would also flip the issue of an aging candidate to the Democrats favor.

Still, there is a big problem: finding a candidate who would show better results than Biden. That is why going through a competitive primary would have been good. A new candidate would have had time to build name recognition and make the case for themself. Initially trailing in the polls, a new candidate might have been able to overcome Trump by best capitalizing on developments such as Trump’s felony convictions. That is now all water under the bridge to be filed under missed opportunities.

[caltrek]

Who Democrats Could Choose to Replace Biden
by Ivana Saric
June 28, 2024

Introduction:

(Axios) Here's who could possibly replace Biden:

Kamala Harris

As second-in-command, Vice President Kamala Harris would be one of the most obvious picks to replace Biden…

Gretchen Whitmer

Michigan Gov. Gretchen Whitmer has been a rising star in the Democratic party who hasn't ruled out a presidential run in the future…

Gavin Newsom

Like Whitmer, California Gov. Gavin Newsom is another name frequently bandied about for a possible 2028 run who could turn into a 2024 replacement…

JB Pritzker

Illinois Gov. JB Pritzker, a billionaire businessman, has also been boosting his national profile in recent years...

Pete Buttigieg

Having made his national ambitions clear with a run for president in 2020, Buttigieg could also be a potential Biden replacement.

Read more here: https://www.axios.com/2024/06/28/who-r ... emocrats

[spryfusion]

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[spryfusion]

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