My name is Derek Brooks

Check out what I've been up to below, see what I did yesterday, read about me, or browse my photos!

How is Trump Still a Viable Contender?

Seriously, how did we get here?

I have such a hard time comprehending how anyone, in good faith, can endorse Donald Trump to be the President of the United States.

Especially after not being endorsed by many of the highest ranking people of his own party, who he hired… his Vice President, his National Security Advisor, his Director of National Intelligence, his Secretary of Defense, his highest ranking military officer, his White House Chief of Staff, and the list goes on, and on.

These Republicans, and so many other people who’ve worked with him know that he’s wildly unethical, a threat to our nation’s security, and to our democracy. How can anyone believe otherwise?

  • He's the most compulsive of liars.
  • He has illegally hoarded national …
broox

I pointed the Google NotebookLM AI to the bio on my website and it made a “podcast.” It’s pretty funny what it learned and chose to include in the conversation, but it’s also so, so dumb, lol. Their commentary on tech is 🙈

on.soundcloud.c...mvA81Ci5mg9rsF7

Well, Knotfest certainly exceeded my expectations. It was my first time doing a festival completely solo, and it was awesome.

Recent albums

Last seen in Des Moines, Iowa

Recent comments

"She may be the worst we've ever seen" is a pretty big statement, and I can't quite say that I see it... at all.

You know how when you're with someone every day, you don't notice them changing as much? But if you step away and come back, the change is super obvious? That's kind of how I view Biden's decline. We don't really know what was going on with Biden's health for the past 3.5 years, but that's what we get for putting super old men on the ticket. Even if it was obvious to those that were working with him, the blame isn't solely on Kamala for not sounding the alarm. We do know that he's been doing his job though - maybe not to everyone's agreement but he's doing his job. I'm personally glad that he put his ego aside and did what his constituents wanted. How hard must it be to be one of the most powerful people in the world and voluntarily give it up? He had the delegates to run and chose to pass the torch. Legally. That is respectable, in my opinion... and I totally understand why the opposition is upset about it. Because now the only old man on the ticket is theirs... and he's terrible to boot.

As for Kamala not receiving a single vote in the primary... She dropped out of the 2020 race before any votes were even cast, so of course she didn't get any. But, she was on Joe's ticket and was voted into office alongside him, with more votes than any candidate in history. As the vice president, we elected Kamala to become the president if anything should happen to Joe... and now look where we're at. Something has happened to Joe. He is old as balls and showing mental decline. It was time for him to go, and the next logical person to take over was Kamala. It just makes sense for her to be next in line. We voted for her to be and she has the experience. I do agree that Biden should've dropped out earlier though.

Regarding RFK Jr... Trump and that weirdo are also both taking legal action to alter the ballot so that he's pulled off in many states. He dropped out too late. That's his own stupid fault. His screw up becomes part of the campaign game and we have to let the legal system sort that out. I'm personally fine with him being removed, but having worked for a campaign, I know that these are the games that are played - on both sides.

I don't think Kamala is perfect by any means, but voting for a president isn't a marriage. I personally believe that she'll be a solid, and maybe even boring president. In fact, getting back to the status quo of not hearing or thinking about the president daily sounds incredible. But if we think they're both bad, we should all be informing ourselves and choosing the better of the two. In this case, Kamala is absolutely better.

Some of your points sound like echoes of right wing media commentary, but I think the best way to truly learn about a candidate is to remove the biased commentators. Watch PBS Frontline's Choice. Watch the debates. Listen to the 1-on-1 interviews. Fact check everything (it's sad that we have to do that) and form your own opinion.

In this election, a lot of the timing on who was better off when is unfortunately conflated with everything that happened during and after the Covid-19 pandemic. We can easily place blame on either administration if we're not deliberate and critical when weighing that alongside their actual values and their work.
To answer the question about him being a viable contender, I think you have to be honest about how bad of a candidate Kamala is too. She may be the worst we’ve ever seen. She’s never received a single vote in a primary. Lied to us for 3.5 years about Joe’s health being ok, but after the Joe/Trump debate they knew they couldn’t deny it any longer. Followed that up with a lawsuit to keep RFK off the ticket in multiple states so that people wouldn’t be able to have to decide between her and RFK. If that’s not undermining democracy I’m not sure what is. She can barely complete an answer to a question with a coherent thought without a teleprompter. She changes her accent depending on the area of the country she’s in, or the group of people she’s talking to. She just comes across super fake and/or phony. Bottom line is we have two pretty bad candidates and that’s why the race is so close imo. On top of that there’s a lot of people who truly do believe they were better off under his administration as well.
Dearest BonerParty42069,

Critique is great, but come on. Americans don't like getting lied to? My blog is specifically asking why Americans are backing the most lyin-ass president of our history? en.wikipedia.or...by_Donald_Trump

My argument about why democrats care about the working class isn't that "Trump is worse," although you do have a good point. The whole "The other person is worse" argument isn't the best tactic to get votes and honestly annoying. It's something that the left has overused when campaigning, and it has hurt them.

I pointed you to a link that clearly lays out Kamala's policies that are aimed at the working and middle classes, but my argument would be that democrats consistently push initiatives to improve the lives of the working class, like funding public education, increasing access to affordable housing, raising the minimum wage, making healthcare more accessible+affordable, strengthening workers' rights through pro-union legislation, paid family leave, affordable childcare, and free community college, pushing for social safety nets like social security, medicare, etc. Finally, they advocate for higher taxes on the ultra-wealthy to fund programs that support the working and middle class.

That said, all of this requires congress, some of which is bought and paid for like you say. It requires bipartisan compromise, but it's absolutely democrats who are championing these things that strongly benefit the working and middles classes.

I completely agree that we need more safeguards in place to restrict money in politics. I'd love to see more limits on campaign fundraising, limits on stock trading by members of congress, presidents funding their personal businesses with tax dollars, etc. Our lawmakers and officials should not be able to be bribed.

So, there are my points, and I'll ask your question back. How is Trump going to make things better for the working class that would make anyone (not necessarily you) overlook his completely unethical behavior?
And please don’t conflate my willingness to critique the Dem party where it’s due with a desire to vote for Trump or have him be our next president. I would love nothing more than to have an electable Dem Party under which Trump couldn’t have possibly been anybody of relevance in the first place, but the party is so inept it’s as if they don’t even want to win.

BonerParty42069! replied to a blog

Your argument about why the Dems care about the working class is that “Trump is worse.”

This is what the Dems do, and it doesn’t work.

And please, give me a cohesive and convincing argument that both of the parties aren’t fully bought and paid for by the ultra wealthy class.

Americans can see that the Dems stated policies don’t align with their actions and values, Americans don’t like getting lied to and they’re desperate for anybody that actually and genuinely cares about the American working class, and Trump has successfully leveraged this reality in his favor.

BonerParty42069! replied to a blog