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I suppose Trump could be a shameless warmonger (he certainly was) but at the same time, a marginal improvement over his own appointees in the form of Haley, Bolton or Pompeo, or, for that matter Biden or any Team D replacement.

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Feb 6, 2023·edited Feb 6, 2023

YIFM, this coming election will be even more of a clown circus than the last one was. On the D side we have the doddering senility case, buoyed by the cackling nincompoop, and a hidden cabal of neocons and wokesters, while on the R side we're likely to have Trump running against the war hawks whom he appointed to office, which somehow, I haven't yet worked it out completely, reminds me of what Groucho Marx said, that he wouldn't deign to belong to a club that would have him as a member.

Oh, if only the authors of the Federalist Papers were here today, or the signatories to the Declaration of Independence, or those who attended the Constitutional Convention. Would they be amused? Or would they think they'd made a big mistake, that remaining colonies of Britain would have been better. That they would be mortified (yes, I know, in the context this would be redundant) is very likely. More likely, embarrassed, ashamed at . . . their naivete perhaps? Well, in fairness, many of them would probably have been horrified with Andrew Jackson, too.

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He shot himself in the foot for re-election by bringing in all the neocon swamp creatures to run shop for him. He does not deserve a second's consideration for a second bite at the apple.

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Feb 6, 2023·edited Feb 6, 2023

You overlook the possibility that Trump is playing five dimensional chess.

He brought these people into his administration so as to flush them out, to give them the rope to hang themselves, to get them to expose themselves for the war mongers that they are, so that he could run against them more effectively in 2024. He can point out what horrible people they are, while they won't be able to question his judgment in appointing them in the first place.

And, yes, part of Trump's devious plan was to "lose" the 2020 election, in order to claim it was stolen from him, and thus better to galvanize his supporters and get people to feel sorry for him, while leaving the Ukraine mess for Biden to make into a bigger mess.

Oh, yes, Trump is kind of the Scarlet Pimpernel of contemporary American politics.

"Is he in Heaven, or is he in the dump, that damned, elusive, Donald Trump."

It should all be good for ratings, at least for a couple more election cycles, if we last that long. After that becomes less interesting, maybe the candidates will have to wrestle in a mud pit while tied together with a six foot rope or something.

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What are we to do then?

I'm certainly no Trumper, even going so far as to vote for Biden in 2020 in order to deny Trump a second term. But what to do in 2024 if the choice is between the inevitable pro-war Democrat and a Trump who claims to be antiwar but we know is not?

At least voting for Trump would allow us to express an opinion on the matter. In the past I've resolved this by voting 3rd party but it may be hard to pass up the opportunity to vote for a candidate that claims to be antiwar and actually has a chance of winning

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