Yeah, good point.

Ooh, good point. Well, they’re both going to ship from the factory in nonworking condition, so that’ll be tough to tell.

Absolutely gonna be “made in America” in that the application of the cheap Chinese gold decal to the cheap Chinese handset will be done in America.

It’s definitely going to be the Escobar Phone all over again. Anyone who accidentally receives one will get a foil-wrapped $150 Huawei handset with a preinstalled background image.

Easier than spotting the Cybertrucks?

he also aimed for VP chair so one would expect him to act at “above state” level.

Nope, one would expect him to do the job he was elected to do. And he is.

We have way too many politicians already talking instead of acting. Working to alleviate real problems in Minnesota is way more effective, even on a nationwide level, than just talking.

But he’s also talking!

how many public gatherings did he address and outlined strategy for applying pressure on current Federal administration?

Several, and more coming.

I’m not a Minnesota resident, but it sure looks like he’s taking direct and local action as the governor of Minnesota. The guy seems to have done a lot of good work for his constituents. As a governor, that’s really the most effective action he can take right now.

I don’t know if I follow your argument here. Kennedy had already rejected the plan, more than a year and a half before his assassination.

They are cowards and weaklings who have no conviction in their actions.

This exactly. They want all the power that comes with being in a successful coup but none of the risk of being in an unsuccessful one.

Counterpoint: Giffords was shot, and nothing changed.

it was a setup. Not an organic shooting

Is there any evidence for that? I haven’t seen any.

Despair asserts omniscience. Don’t carry water for their narrative. Hope is spite.

So the last one there–whether or not it’s a moral idea, it’s important to remember that Trump was shot. Eleven months ago today, actually. It did nothing to stop this, and it did nothing to slow down his followers. Now, I don’t think that it particularly galvanized them, like some people say; but I also don’t think it did anything to remind him of his own mortality. To the contrary: he talked about his survival as if it were the will of God.

In February of 2001, the White House was shot at while Bush II was inside. Everything in the next seven years happened anyway. It doesn’t seem to have made him any more receptive to the will or displeasure of the people.

In 1994, something similar happened while Clinton was in the White House. He still served two terms, and not much seems to have changed about his demeanor or policies.

Ronald Reagan was shot at and hit in 1981, but it took the nuclear near miss in 1983 for him to de-escalate his rhetoric.

The attempted assassination of Nixon in February of 1974 doesn’t seem to have done anything to speed up his resignation that August.

For that matter, the successful assassination of JFK didn’t stop Johnson from handling Vietnam so poorly, and didn’t stop Nixon from being Nixon to begin with.

So I’m frankly doubtful that assassination attempts–successful or otherwise–are at all effective in giving politicians any feeling of mortality.

They don’t want to be in the background of the photos in all the history books. It’s not going to go well for them.

Dang. I actually read this one. Broke my whole streak because I wasn’t paying attention.

I do love being proved wrong! But you haven’t provided any evidence, or even so much as a single claim. Only insults.

Anyway, since I broke my streak, I’m just gonna ghost this conversation. Peace!

K. 👍

lol you’re posting screenshots now

Still not reading anything you post. Keep at it though. Maybe next time.

K. 👍

Honestly, we’re in such uncharted waters that I couldn’t venture to guess. It may well be that Trump will be so unpopular in 2028, and his anointed replacement so uninspiring, that the MAGA demonic pact breaks. This has precedent; pretty much nobody who tries Trump’s tricks in anywhere but the deepest of red areas gets any traction. It seems like it might only work for him.

Then again, it’s also entirely possible that he comes out of this whole thing smelling like roses (I can’t even venture a shred of a guess as to how, but he’s weathered some really unpopular press, so who knows) and so whoever he puts his political weight behind goes the distance. In that case, especially if his replacement is a “moderate” MAGA (the Overton Window is stupid far right at this point), I think Newsom gets absolutely trounced in 28.

All of this assumes that Trump doesn’t succumb to his clogging arteries, that he doesn’t have Newsom killed, that he doesn’t “cancel” the 2028 election altogether because of “something something rigged something something,” that he doesn’t actually just get himself back on the ticket again, that the Dems don’t win a supermajority in 2026 and give him the heave-ho…a whole lot of things can happen between now and then.

K. 👍

K. 👍

Honestly one of the most infuriating things (though far from the most damaging thing) that Trump is in the process of doing is making Gavin Newsom into a legitimate 2028 presidential candidate.