Kirk Gallaway

Yeah, I hear you Cliff, of course HC did win the popular vote. I just don't think people in 2016 were extrapolating that it was possible the Dems could lead the popular vote and lose the election again!i All the polls were predicting she had a 2-3 point lead, which was accurate! There's 110 days left and the Vegas and the market could get it wrong. But the markets today are starting to bank on everything Trump is saying about his future financial policies. -Health care stocks are popping, venting a sigh of relief at the thought of less Biden regulation. The public is stupid enough to give up the economic gains they've made as far as Health Care, whether they will, we'll find out. -Semi conductor stocks are tanking because of offhand Trump comments, and I'm losing my shirt! -Bitcoin and crypto currencies are going up because Trump reversed himself and is pro Bitcoin now! -The big banks have been popping all week! Bill, I read your earlier post about pollyvote and opened that first link you provided. It looked interesting, and now it shows Trump up 275-263. As a snapshot, I'd be happy with that right now. P.S. Bill, Ive been trying to find your first post about pollyvote that i believe had 3 links in it. Can you give me the other 2 links? Thanks,

Yeah Bill "But in sleepy London town there's no place!" The U.S. and France went crazy but the Brits pretty much sat that one out. **** I love John, and actually I thought with Sean's post , John had matured a lot by 1980, and I agreed generally with what he said. The "God" was back in his "primal scream" days, 70-71, and so was him and Yoko's "Bed in for Peace". He was sort of the artiste basket case during the 70's, that you'd always kind of humorously check in to see what kind of thing he was going through! Ron---I disagree with one point, there is an afterlife. But I've always found it peaceful, uplifting. I hear you Ron, but I think the message is that his "Imagine" vision should be done with no expectation of reward.

Good old DNC moving to squelch any debate about Biden's fitness! Now they're going to vote 3 weeks early! There's definitely some conflict with that in the party as the Dem Congress and Senate candidates are finding Biden sapping down their numbers. As Doug posted Adam Schiff is sounding the alarm but in fairness, it probably only means the difference of a 12 point lead against Steve Garvey going down to 8 points in his election for California Senate, though I don't have the figures. But I assume he's sounding the alarm for other Dem candidates, Because in the Senate, there are many more Dem seats on the line, and it's going to be tough, and they would be hoping to tip the house if they had a good front runner. . Anyway, the smart money in Vegas now says Trump 67%, Biden caving at 25%, Harris 12%. Harris is 12 under the idea that Biden would be replaced or have to drop out before the election. https://www.thelines.com/odds/election/

Di Eugenio: Therefore men like Scott Ritter and Col. Douglas MacGregor have attracted large followings in the alternative media. Viewers trust their coverage of what was and is really happening in the war in Ukraine. I would say this is dated, as of a couple of years ago. Then I see Jim wrote this last month! I once really liked Scott Ritter for his asking where was the WMD in the Iraq war. But Ritter very early after Putin's invasion was licking his chops, childishly scoffing at Nato and crediting Putin for exposing that Nato will be too weak to mount any kind of consensus against the Putin invasion and the war will end very soon! And here we are 2 and a half years later! And viewers now should "trust his coverage?" Ok, Di Eugenio, rather than coming out with his politics, simply gives links that his followers sometimes re post that express his political views. Yet somehow they're not considered political views?

So this was the "13 keys" guy? I was going to say to "Sandy, fine as long as it's not the 13 keys guy!" They weren't called "variables" Sandy, that's too clinical, this guys really commercial! Think "Keys." He's certainly the most commercial guy here. I think I've seen clips of him 4 times now, at least 2 softball CNN interviews. Should there be that much exposure to one pundit here? But I saw a Chris Cuomo interview with Lichtman disputing rumors of Biden's being in decline, to which Cuomo said that he has seen Biden over the last few years and he definitely is in decline! Cuomo then went into another solo segment later where he lambasted that this was the only alternative the 2 parties could have given us? Starts at 3:45. https://youtu.be/yKdqEK4T97U Well done Bill! The guy's methodology is so static, It's based solely on the number of keys and weighs each key exactly the same! Any one can back test and come up with a formula. With all this certainty, he doesn't make a prediction, which is ok. But as you say Bill, he doesn't really take in account some unique variables. There's not adequate polling on the other major Democratic candidates because they are not in the race. So none of those more youthful 4 couldn't beat Trump? Why do you think despite being a lame VP candidate that Trump picked a 39 year old, and wants Biden to stay in the race?? *I see in Melania's call for de escalation, she talked about Donald's love for music! They must know each other very intimately! heh heh

My god! Sandy, so you lost me in my first 2 sentences?. Kirk: The quick answer is any one of a few but Biden. They would all do better. This will make more sense if you remember what you just read. Where in the world did you get that assumption? No, I'm going to break it to you gently Sandy. I want Biden out! And there's some urgency! That could have gleaned from reading this. Kirk: There's enough time to do debates and discussion and polling, and see which are better and don't make serious mistakes, but as long as Biden is obstructing, we won't get the necessary exposure. The quicker Biden steps out if the way, the greater variety of candidates we could have. Because Biden and Trump are the least popular 2 Presidential candidates in history! For example, I bet there are a lot of young people who would like to get more involved in politics just despising Biden's image because he's so old, and he perfectly represents to them the deafness of the generation keeping them from assuming power, and that reason is also true for Trump as well as Trump being Trump! Ok, so you want specific names? I just assumed the standard names being bandied about, first the VP Kamala Harris, Gavin Newsome, Gretchen Whitmer and Josh Shapiro. And the delegates decide at the convention, just like they did for almost 200 years. We're seeing Harris go up now at just the anticipation of something different! By all means name drop Allan Lichton, I even tried googling him and couldn't find anything, but if you're not even going to share his theory. I do like his flow-thru tea bags!

It's a good question Sandy. The quick answer is any one of a few but Biden. They would all do better. There's enough time to do debates and discussion and polling, and see which are better and don't make serious mistakes, but as long as Biden is obstructing, we won't get the necessary exposure. The quicker Biden steps out if the way, the greater variety of candidates we could have. The novelty of this, is the only thing that could top this coronation, after a failed assassination attempt. As for the fairness of Biden leaving office. I first realized in 1980, when Reagan was elected that I don't have a clear idea at all on who the American public is. I revised my expectation and started to deal with those limitations.

This Trump assassination attempt, is terrible news, apart from the false equivalency. Trump is playing it to the center more after the Biden collapse. If we come out of the convention with Trump looking to calm the atmosphere. Biden's path way to beating Trump will be almost non existent. The usual Dem bitching about winning the popular and being robbed of the Presidency is for losers, and is getting more tired every time, considering the Dems never reach the amount of power to change the electoral college. This is not satisfactory to me. We would be giving up Democracy. We'll applaud Biden closing in at the end, and his taking the popular vote and then bitching about losing. The other side of going in with Biden is the best he could win with is a squeaker in the historical closest election in the electoral college that will set off the Trump claims of stolen election and drive us at least to an uprising, which I suppose I was hoping we might get out of our system and put the foot down on these crazies, as might have been done 4 years ago, but is not at all desirable. "There are graveyards filled with men who thought they were indispensable." Charles De Gaulle Biden said when Stepanopoulus asked him about his losing in the polls, that "my polls don't show that". Either the people around him have not told him the electoral college truth, or Biden has convinced himself in his hubris that he's the only one who could single handedly reverse all these issues with "the truth" and the American people will respond because they are just too decent to elect a fascist, just like some here believe.But really we'll be hoping for a scandalous communique from Trump to Putin to come out, or we'll be like lambs going to slaughter. The problem now is this incites a "we gotta go with out guy" mentality, even though Biden's a loser, and what's worse is, if the Republicans do play it presidentially and calm the waters, they may end up being so far ahead, no other young candidate who my have aspirations for 2028, will now get involved under the perceived circumstance of Joe being forced out, which only becomes a greater task, the longer Joe holds out.* So much for Democracy. ---JMO *That would work best for Harris as the money transition's smooth, and without being VP she probably can't go anywhere on her own.

But W.! I've been hearing this is God's will!. Dude! About the Aileen Canon ruling. So what the Trump forces thought was the strongest case against them now dismissed! And it took over a year and a half to finally determined that the appointing of the special prosecutor was not legitimate? In my limited experiences with the legal system, it's the luck of the draw on what judge someone can receive, and who makes that ultimate decision to appoint a new Trump appointee with so little experience, as judge in one of the biggest cases in U.S. history?!

I will agree with Ben in that I don't think these labels apply as much anymore. And to all of us, who feel we've had Jeffrey Sachs, who I generally like, shoved down our throats sufficiently. And while I agree generally about Sach's depiction of neocons. I did read Jim's substack on Sachs, and unfortunately any Jim substack on Sachs should probably include in his brief biography of Sachs that his biggest career achievement in his profession of economics was that he was the wunderkind, probably the single most important American influence to engineer the "shock therapy" on the Russian economy after the fall of Soviet empire. A shock therapy that paralyzed it for well over a decade and as it turned out and gave rise to Putin. According to Sachs, it had to be a "shock" or the various heads of Russian government might find time to retrench. Though not all the decisions can necessarily be put on Sach's lap. Before at least the Soviets had a decent safety net because that's sort of job one in a Socialist economic system. But they sort of threw the baby out with the bathwater! I've never heard Sachs really criticize Putin for invading Ukraine. It was all our fault. I assume that's because after he toppled the Soviet economy years earlier, he was trying to prove to the Russians that he wasn't out to screw them all long! heh heh heh https://www.nytimes.com/1993/06/27/magazine/dr-jeffrey-sachs-shock-therapist.html

What was the point of this? Trump was told the assailant was neutralized and surrounded by SS. So he uses the incident to get a photo op. There was no "courage "involved as Uygur said. As usual Ben has no background other than to call Uygur a "leftie". To inform you Ben, Uygur is very down on Biden because of the genocide of the Israel Hamas War, but maybe doesn't know Trump simply says Israel should "finish what at they started" and wouldn't restrain Israel in any way. .

Always be wary of fakery. This seems like an incredible possible AI setup. A sign of things to come! Why would he say this? But if true, I think this is the most definitive yet. He was probably brought up a Republican. But I agree, Newt Gingrich? (My God!,) and Ben Shapiro are sacks of excrement!

Yeah I said I'd vote for Biden if his head was in a jar. Those of us who want Biden to go don't think we've been at all hysterical here. The nations going to have to try as we are to have a national discussion about the graduated effects of old aging, but now really isn't the time. Whether Biden ends up like Jesus Christ and dying for us, or maybe has the fate of the only other U.S. President with the initials J.B. James Buchanan. The Democrat (pro slavery) President just before the Civil War. I think we all know the stakes, and don't have to convince each other That would be nice, I'm not counting on it. In the short term, I'd be interested in the "Fetterman effect." But this is not about National polling. It's about the electoral college. I see the Dems right now are freaking out about Trump -10 in 2020 in Virginia and dead even now, and your state Paul, New Hampshire, where they show Trump now pulling ahead! Some polls have even showed Trump now leading in New Jersey! I don't think any of those states would go Trump if Biden's fitness no longer becomes an issue. Which it sounds like you're convinced it won't. But the Dems are already prepared to concede that Trump could easily steal back Georgia, Arizona and Nevada and are hunkering down on Wisconsin, Michigan, but particularly on Pennsylvania,(where the most recent polls have him 5-7 points behind!) because if Biden loses any of those 3, he' loses! But even if Biden takes Pennsylvania, that will make a Biden victory of 270-268! The closest election in U.S. history! Most people are not at all aware of this. That's the narrow pathway we are buying into!

That's true W. Not to mention, Bush's War in Iraq! Some guy told me this online, and I didn't believe him but I found out it was true. Obama completely signed on to the George Bush "purge in Iraq" which was sort of his dying gasp attempt to try to save his reputation for getting us in the War. The maximum number of troops in Iraq were under Obama, not Bush! Obama escalated upon getting in office. But it is true that when Obama left office , he left fewer troops than he inherited, but that was after 8 years! ****** RFK Jr. sent text apologizing to woman who accused him of sexual assault https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/07/12/rfk-sexual-assault-apology-eliza-cooney/?wpisrc=nl_politics&carta-url=https%3A%2F%2Fs2.washingtonpost.com%2Fcar-ln-tr%2F3e4b32a%2F669102cfe22cdf7ea5257ec6%2F646f594f44d19211b692299e%2F30%2F61%2F669102cfe22cdf7ea5257ec6

I'd like to get the money out of politics, but this is only partially true Bill. In this situation, the donors are not alone by any means, and the dissatisfaction with Biden is present throughout almost all demographics of the party except African Americans. You can't evaluate Biden's standing in the party right now by saying that there's only 18 Dem. Congressman (or not even 10%) who want Biden to step down. Obviously there's a lot of gratitude toward Biden and the Dems don't want to be seen to run Biden out of town. They're trying to appeal to Biden to gracefully go on his own. Despite more lame gaffes, Biden did reasonably well at his press conference. Certainly 100 times as proficient and specific in foreign policy then Trump could ever be. And maybe it has slowed it down a little, but it has hardly stemmed the tide.. So the current situation is very anxious and uncomfortable, but it really couldn't be any other way. There are people trying to mount consensus and checking new polls every day, which have concluded over and over that both Biden and Trump are weak candidates. So this upcoming week of Trump's coronation is really sort of opportune I think, for the Dems to quietly vet Biden some more, read the tea leaves and the polls and try to negotiate with him, and break it to him slowly. No one wants to do something precipitous and any of the MSM trying to put deadlines on this up to now have failed. I don't know if Biden is as stubborn as he's coming off, and maybe is now opening to the idea of leaving. But I would say after the respite this week after the Republic convention, then there will be a much greater urgency and this should come to a head. because the convention will then be only a month away.

Well put Bill!, though it is interesting that people who think Biden should continue, completely discount failing health and the progression of his condition. But It's this. Bill: Here's the problem: (according to 538)While Trump has a 54% unfavorable rating vs 42% favorable Biden has has 57% unfavorable to 38% favorable People don't like either one but amazingly Biden fares worse Why does the Democratic Party insist on nominating candidates people do not like? That is the great underlying question, the great ocean to sample. How many people are out there who positively won't vote for either candidate( mostly because they're too old) who would vote for a new candidate purely to be given some new alternative? Most polling says that should make a good difference. More recent polls say Harris is now outperforming Biden and pulling even with Trump. This is probably based only on the fact that she has the recognition of having a sort of mediocre 4 years as VP. Here is Gretchen Whitmer last night on Colbert. I've seen her under pressure and death threats in the past and it was nice to see her more relaxed. I think she did well. There are 2 parts to the interview. The second segment is the link below the picture. I see Biden at the Nato meeting just introduced Zelensky as President Putin!i He did correct himself soon enough. The second segment. https://youtu.be/Ifi_Oi350Dk

Jean, There's not such a bill, but most states are winner-take-all with a few small state exceptions. It was set up to appeal to the lesser populated states. But we already have a bicameral legislature where the Senate has 2 reps for each state even though the number of people represented by reps in the smaller states such as Wyoming might be 100 times fewer than in California! I had always heard to change the Electoral College System requires the approval of 2/3rds of the individual state legislatures. And being that in most states they would be voting against their interests. It would be a long shot to change it. Then i read more recently that using another legal maneuver they almost did throw out the electoral system in 1969, but failed. There are a lot of things that could be done with a strong majority of Democrats in the 2 Legislatures and the President , including Universal Health Care, packing the Supreme Court, or putting term limits on service, protecting Woman's Rights, sensible gun legislation and getting rid of the Electoral College and in the population as a whole, these all would express the will of the people. But it's the same story over and over again, Americans just don't vote in their interests. Have i answered your question, Jean?

Wow, that's weird Jean! Making jokes about throwing batteries and boomers into the ocean or into the abyss. Sounds a little sick, maybe a lot of anger there. Then I got this. Are they the originators?, looks like a bunch of Asian kids around Koch's age and his level of humor. https://www.facebook.com/p/TXT-Memes-100069621446967/ Ben, can you tell me about the origin of all these memes? Jean you were asking a question about the electoral college and i was going to answer you but I got too busy. But I will. Was the question if there was any way for the U.S. to get out of the electoral college system?

I know you are. You didn't answer my question. Where did you pick up this cartoon from?

By then it would be way too late. It would look desperate. So you're actually holding up hope that Biden would kick ass in second debate, and that's your strategy Sandy? Come up with something more realistic. 90% of the people who are staunchly Biden probably aren't like you counting on Joe to completely turn around the second debate. You know Trump may not even debate? My guess is if Joe's not having bad day, even if he won, he'd look like some old guy yelling at kids to get off his lawn. Part of the problem Sandy, is his lack of urgency since. Ok, next day he had a good teleprompter. Still it took him a week to engage with Stephanopoulus. I would say the polls show him down 2%. But he's going to have to gain at least 5 to have a chance in the Electoral College. Where does he get that? In order to get that he's going to have to be so much more vigorous, it might kill him, hopefully not, but how is he going to make it through 2028? We all want to defeat Trump, but Bill's right. I haven't once heard you take in account Biden's health despite the fact that some of us have been telling you about this for over a year. I would disagree with you about the MSM coverage of this at least in one aspect in that I think they've backed off on the fact that Biden just keeps creating gaffes! He can't help it! This was in the Stephanopoulos interview. This was an important question I also would have Biden to gauge what was his awareness of how badly he was doing during the debate. Did you really see the MSM picking on this? ****** "And Biden’s answer to whether he grasped how badly it was going in real time — well, that could have been typical Biden rambling, something that those of us who have covered him have witnessed for years, or it could have been more." Biden’s response, in its entirety: “The whole way I prepared, nobody’s fault, mine. Nobody’s fault but mine. I, uh — I prepared what I usually would do, sitting down as I did come back with foreign leaders or National Security Council for explicit detail. And I realized — about partway through that, you know, all — I get quoted, the New York Times had me down at 10 points before the debate, nine now, or whatever the hell it is. The fact of the matter is, what I looked at is that he also lied 28 times. I couldn’t — I mean, the way the debate ran, not — my fault, no one else’s fault, no one else’s fault.” So do I get labelled as being a "twitter Biden hater" for just bringing this up? That's another big part of the problem.

Hyeah Ben, where did you pick that cartoon up? I'd like to read some of their comments! Remember when you first came here, we were all the Deep State for opposing Trump? Well, being "Deep State" you should know. Isn't Biden's 2 war foreign policy front identical to your own? So this is a Trump site you're on that's trying to keep Biden in the race by saying he's a victim of the "Deep state." Seriously Ben, not that anyone ever answers my questions anyway. Where did you pick up this cartoon?

Yeah W. Bennett was sort of the most forgettable Democratic candidate for President in 2020. But light years cooler than the most forgettable Republican candidate in 2024, Doug Burghum! A little easier on the eyes too. Bennett dropped out I think in New Hampshire. ***** Seems like years ago. Maybe it was. Biden challenges Trump to a debate.

Michael Moore about the debate. (excerpt) I include some of his praise of Biden as well.. Was it really a debate if one of the debaters is so mentally and physically incapacitated that he cannot complete a sentence, randomly flips between discussing abortion, the three trimesters of a pregnancy and how great his golf game is, then looking around, unable to find one of the four cameras pointing at him, he suddenly turns his head all the way to the left as if he were looking for Rhode Island, and then out of nowhere raises his voice and shouts, “WE FINALLY BEAT MEDICARE!” Not Ohio State, but Medicare. We saw and we heard all of that, no matter what the Party hacks keep telling us. It was heartbreaking. It was truly, without equivocation, unlike anything any of us had ever seen. No matter where you stood on the Joe Biden scale, from Joe the Working Class Hero to Joe the Banker of Palestinian Ethnic Cleansing, one thing was certain: This was not a cold. This was a human being in utter collapse. Not just political collapse, or performance collapse, but rather a full frontal lobe meltdown where at any moment you had to wonder… was it possible that the sweet and fragile existence we call “life” was about to short-circuit, or worse, lose power (to Trump)? And that no amount of shouting “STAT!” or cutting quickly to a commercial break was going to restore the President-cum-Patient to full capacity in order to save this even more fragile Democracy. Do not mistake my criticisms of Biden spending 9 months in the loving embrace of Bibi Netanyahu as meaning that I do not deeply appreciate his 3 years of being the most progressive President of my lifetime. That’s right, my friends, there has been more action taken, through executive orders and legislation, to protect the environment, more government officials appointed who are, in their heart of hearts, Democratic Socialists, more serious funding to lift millions out of poverty, more support for labor unions, libraries, single mothers and college students deep in debt. And he has had this fervent, almost religious zeal to fight greed and obscene profits due to a true compassion he has for those dealt a bad hand in life — and he has had more of all of that than all the good presidents like Kennedy, Obama, and Carter were able to muster. He will have another mini stroke in the next few months (he’s probably had one or two already) and then, sadly, the decline will not be reversed. Best to make a plan now and not wait until October. This is not about whether he’s fit to serve another four years — this is about whether he should serve another four days in the toughest job in the world. That’s the question we should be asking. If he offered to drive you from Flint to Detroit tonight, would you get in the car? https://www.michaelmoore.com/p/we-are-asking-the-wrong-question

Ben, the forum's foremost hawk now posting Tulsi Gabbard? Why should anyone take you seriously? And Gabbard and Laura Ingraham are supposed to give us some real insight into Kamala Harris here? That was your aim? I actually on this thread, addressed this whole issue of the members of the forum endorsing candidates purely on a myopic JFKA centric basis with an example that happened before you got here which I thought might ring a bell to you as you are the foremost proponent of political endorsement currently on the forum with RK. The example involves Tulsi Gabbard who became the forum political darling for simply having a copy of Douglas's "JFK and the unspeakable" in her arms and saying she plans to read it sometime. Gabbard now promises that RK will drop out and help Trump defeat Biden. I then showed a clip of her recent appearance with Bill Maher. Where it's obvious she's completely fos. Unfortunately youtube took off the presentation. So I've substituted here a shortened clip of it with a commentary in a podcast. I'd sooner not have that, but this guy's a smart guy. Get some balance Ben. We have a much more comprehensive idea of where RK stands than you do! My original post can be seen here as the next to last post on the page. https://educationforum.ipbhost.com/topic/30589-the-jfk-assassination-records-act-discussion/page/18/

Didn't he run 3 times before he won? But i get it. After he won, things have mostly gone well. I agree, Legislatively Biden's been excellent. My brother lives in Wisconsin. I've been there a few times. Last time was his wedding. Really nice people. Biden won by what, 20,00 votes in Wisconsin! They had one of the best Senators, Russ Feingold and they kicked him out for Ron Johnson! and then re elected him! And that Jim Thompson as governor? And who can forget Paul Ryan? I haven't seen much evidence that the American public is smart at all, and it's getting worse. Prior to the debate , I thought he'd eke out Wisconsin and Michigan, and maybe he could still. Now the absolute best Biden could hope for is Pennsylvania being as being as close as Florida in 2000. Again we're old. It's all image. And our images suck! Our best hope is playing outside of the 40 yard lines where we are losing, and finally passing a torch.