Subject: Re: TOP SECRET//NOFORN
Weaving together two threads:

Dope1: Interesting. I say the same thing in reverse: The democrats have embraced socialism...


Well, went away for the day to LurkerMom land, Wisconsin, to see Regina Spektor at the Riverside Theater in Milwaukee. She said she had the jitters and wanted to start her set by performing an acapella version of Shalom Aleichem -- which traditionally is sung as the family gathers around the table on Friday night to welcome the 'angels of peace'. She thought the traditional song might calm her nerves. But the audience assured her she could do no wrong, and she sang and played and chatted as she always does in concert: beautifully, whimsically. She emigrated to the United States as a child, fleeing religious persecution. See her live, if she's in your neck of the woods. If not, I included a few links to her performances below.

Back home today, though, and there's this absurd litany of nonsense.

No, democrats do not embrace socialism any more than republicans; that's part of the tried and true republican effort to scare voters into opposing the Democratic ticket and supporting their candidates by weaponizing socialism. A Republican president and Republicans eagerly passed the CARES Act to aid businesses and flood households and firms with cash during the coronavirus pandemic.

Republicans have adopted what amounts to a values-based socialism where the government seeks to control the corporate ethics and decision-making capabilities of businesses, telling them exactly how to run their businesses; the DeSantis feud with Disney, for example.

Tucker Carlson called for Google to be regulated like a public utility.

Republicans love farm subsidies and they love fossil fuel subsidies.

In short, Republicans embrace socialism.


Dope1..., racialist rhetoric that is designed to divide the country...

Sorry, but pointing out racism is not something "designed to divide the country". You condemn racism and racists or your silence is approval.


Dope1: ...are incompetent at governing...

Incompetent at governing? What color is the sky in your world?

Biden often seeks bipartisanship and has achieved it several critical times in his highly successful first term. Bipartisan Biden achieved so much on infrastructure, lower prescription drugs, job creation, economic growth, lifting the debt ceiling, and other critical matters, including bringing America successfully through the pandemic and rebuilding the America economy.


Dope1: ...endorse disastrous policies that Do. Not. Work. and in fact fail every time they try.

Umm.

-- Over 13 million jobs created since the Biden took office.

-- A historically low unemployment rate of 3.7%, and an unemployment rate below 4 percent for the longest period since the 1960s.

-- The highest labor market participation rate for women since the BLS series began in 1948.

-- More than 35,000 projects already funded and underway in communities across the country.

-- Inflation fell to 3%.

Then consider the Chips and Science Act, the PACT Act, gun safety legislation, his first year GDP growth doubled Trump's, the most small business applications ever, lower prescription drug prices, and unless you're a Trump cultist or a blind partisan hack, you've gotta' admit Biden and the democrats know how to govern.

Now that's not to say everything was peaches and cream but your assertions are childish and false.


Dope1:
-Defunding police leads to more crime

First, no one has defunded the police, although many cities have smaller police departments.

Second, did that lead to higher crime rates? No, just the opposite: crime rates are down: levels of nearly all offenses are lower, or have changed little, in the first six months of 2023 compared with the same period in 2022. The only notable exception is an increase in motor vehicle theft.

A similar dynamic of smaller departments and falling crime has also played out in Philadelphia, which had about 5,800 officers at the end of last year, more than 700 fewer than in 2019. The city saw homicides decline more than 20 percent and has spent millions of dollars in overtime.

In Minneapolis, whose homicide data is not included in the council's report, violent crime is also down substantially, and the department has about 300 fewer officers than in 2019. To maintain the reductions in crime, the department has said it would focus its limited resources this summer on crime hot spots in the city.


Dope1:
-Feckless foreign policy leads to more conflict and chaos abroad

Feckless? How so?

Biden rebuilt NATO and reestablished America's leadership role in the world.

And what, you'd rather have a presidential candidate begging a foreign adversary for help against his political opponent, or your president exclaiming his love for murderous dictators or extorting a foreign head of state? Trump praised Kim Jong Un and Kim Jong Un test launched a new solid-fueled medium-range ballistic missile, the Pukguksong-2, tested ER SCUD medium range ballistic missiles, tested its RD-250 liquid-fueled rocket engine, test launched an intermediate range ballistic missile, flight tested an intercontinental ballistic missile for the first time, flight tested an inter-continental ballistic missile for the second time.

Trump threatened Jong Un with "fire and fury like the world has never seen" and North Korea test launched an intermediate range ballistic missile and conducted its sixth nuclear test. Jung Un calls Trump a "mentally deranged U.S. dotard". Kim Jong-un declared "victory" in developing nuclear weapons, ICBMs, and the ability to mount nuclear warheads on ballistic missiles.

So, yeah, chaos abroad... that was Trump's brand.


Dope1: -Projecting weakness instead of strength leads to thugs like Putin invading Ukraine...

Umm. Right. Gotta' love these Republican Putin apologists blaming America for Russia's invasion of Ukraine.


Dope1:
-An open border leads to more crime and more chaos in border towns plus an unsustainable social burden

Umm. Illegal border crossings dropped to the lowest level in over two years in June, the first full month under Biden's new, restrictive asylum rule, which makes it much harder to attain asylum.

And U.S. border communities that reported crimes to the FBI found they have lower violent crime and homicide rates than the national average. On average, the eight cities ' Brownsville, McAllen, Laredo, Eagle Pass and El Paso in Texas, Sunland Park in New Mexico, Yuma in Arizona, and San Diego ' had a violent crime rate of 333.6 per 100,000 residents, compared to 388.57 for the national average. Yuma was the only community near the border in 2021 that had violent crime and murder rates higher than the national average. Some border cities like McAllen, Texas, a city of 144,000, had a particularly low violent crime rate of 180.2 per 100,000 people.


Dope1: -Reckless spending leads to inflation

Easily dispelled: the United States has the lowest inflation rate of the G-7 countries except Canada. Germany, Italy and the UK have inflation rates more than twice as high as the U.S.


Regina Spektor Live on KEXP (sonically superior to the Tiny Desk Concert): https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

Regina Spektor's Tiny Desk Concert (nicely captures her live performance): https://www.youtube.com/watch?...

https://www.nytimes.com/2023/0...