A number of my good friends and family have been surprised about my decision to support @realDonaldTrump for president. They have been surprised because my political giving history has been mostly to Democrats, my voting registration has typically been Democrat (in NY, you must…
— Bill Ackman (@BillAckman) October 11, 2024
October 12, 2024
33 things "our most aggressive adversaries would likely implement if they wanted to destroy America from within, and had the ability to take control of our leadership."
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The man lays it all out and does it well. Thank you for this post!
Well put.
I don’t like the “what would our enemies do” framing that has been so popular the last few years since there are endless things our enemies might do, and some of them are bound to be things our opponents are doing—that’s why we don’t support them.
That said, the Democrat’s programs, if followed implemented, would doom us and the rest of the world with us. However much some people might prefer a weaker more humble US, the cold reality is a strong hegemon is the only thing keeping most of the world from going up in flames and if that hegemon is not the US, then it’s nobody.
Ackman uses the subjunctive formulation "our most aggressive adversaries would implement" to eschew actually stating the inescapable conclusion to be drawn from the 33 bullet points: this is an intentional strategy to "destroy America from within" by the Democrats in power.
Exceptionally well stated. Also brave given the fact that he lives in NYC. Ackman has F.U. money and isn’t afraid of any blow back.
He has been paying attention, unlike many celebrity endorsers. Also he is not a member of the "Military-Industrial Complex."
The ones that are paying attention have specific arguments and a sense of vision of where & what things lead to. The ones who are desperate for the 'Status Quo' do not present arguments, suggesting that they are not paying attention or thinking for themselves. Instead, their arguments are mostly ad hominem condemnations, emotionally based, often exaggerated or even outright wrong.
He mentions being registered as a D, since the R in the general has no chance in NY. I have wondered if Rs need to stop registering as R and register D as everywhere. The R primary will still produce the most right leaning casndidate, but the D primary will then produce a more moderate/conservative D general nominee.
I think it might be more accurate to say that the Democratic Party has been taken over and weaponized by some of America's enemies. The "Democrats in power" are bought and paid for.
But where are we going to find that moderate/conservative D nominee? Especially now that they don’t bother wit primaries.
First off, why should anyone care who a Hedge Fund Manager is endorsing?
Secondly, isn't Bill Ackman the exact kind of elite egghead that you all contend is destroying the country? (legacy admission to Harvard, undergraduate degree in social studies, and the thing that should make MAGA run away, an MBA from Harvard)
Since Jimmy Carter saddled Afghanistan with the Taliban, it is just possible that the war there was the only justified war we have fought since WW2. It's a shame we quit before we undid that terrible thing of organizing, funding, and arming the Taliban there. And if you think that 9-11 was not too heavy a price to pay to reverse a communist coup there, when the commies all fell a decade later anyway, well, go ahead and say it out loud. At least the communists list equal rights for women as a fundamental tenant of their system, unlike the Taliban we put in power there.
I’m guessing all 33 points will be labeled misinformation/disinformation which should have been censored.
The day is coming soon where the cost of our debt service exceeds the cost of our military, and writing $4 trillion a year in hot checks will bring that day pretty soon, but hey! At least we will all have electric cars, which will be too dangerous to use as boat anchors.
And yet he was still cowed into apologizing for supporting Trump, and wrote the weakling's inevitable preamble about Trump's supposed imperfections while never a mention of Harris' many fatal flaws.
This is a symptom of how the propaganda of "The Good Guys!!!!" has permeated conventional wisdom. We who support Donald Trump personally and his pro-American agenda have to apologize and explain ourselves for defying the Party and its anti-American, anti-humanity ideology.
Shouldn't those who seek to erase our nation's borders and culture, release criminals among the innocent, kill babies and mutilate children, persecute political opponents and the citizens who support them, and engage in conspiracies to defraud and deceive the public be the ones to apologize and explain their behavior?
Niggle. Perhaps you word have quibbled with a word or two of the Declaration of Independence?
Don't be a fucking idiot Freder. It's a probabilistic phenomenon with the Ivies, not deterministic and we all know that. Except for perhaps you.
Repetition may not make an argument logically stronger, but it does make one more persuasive. They own the media firehose.
I don't think it's a strategy, I think it's magical thinking. Like Joe Biden just said a week ago, "There is nothing America can't do," including, apparently, the impossible.
I figured that comment would trigger you and you would whine like a hit dog about it. Grow up someday.
Here’s a like argument from another oldtimer lib…
https://x.com/redsteeze/status/1844956403342942219?ref_src=twsrc%5Etfw%7Ctwcamp%5Etweetembed%7Ctwterm%5E1844956403342942219%7Ctwgr%5E860b5d2c4f9945af3ebf4bbb691f6e9aedda0e77%7Ctwcon%5Es1_c10&ref_url=https%3A%2F%2Finstapundit.com%2F677322%2F
My first read is that this forms an excellence basis for a second Declaration of Independence if the voting system fails us. And I mean that either way - if you are a Trump supporter, you cannot abide these acts the Democrats have visited upon the nation, it is probably time to leave if Harris wins. If you are a Democrat and want to keep going with the 33 items that can be continued, you may be advised to leave should Trump return to office. Easily as good a piece of writing as Martin Luther's 95 Theses, or Letter From Birmingham Jail in terms of defining a political moment. If a person can read these and still feel politically neutral, it may be time to consider a neurological visit to monitor potential cognitive decline.
Like many listicals, there were repeats. I disagreed with 15. It has just risen to the presidential level. Democrats have done similar things at other levels. Using Texas as an example, I point to the criminal charges and trials brought against Tom Delay, Rich Perry, and Ken Paxton.
X Premium could be a good deal if you've got a lot to say.
What Ackman doesn't consider is that maybe George Soros is just trying to give young people the great opportunity he's had -- to start out with absolutely nothing.
And there'll be plenty of bargains to pick up once the country goes splat.
Lookee Freder getting all gotcha MAGATS! Way to read the room boy.
MADA
Also, MAVA, not MASK.
MACA in the Founders' convention.
I have a pseudonymous X account bur have never posted, replied or even really get on it. Ackman’s post is the first time I’ve ever replied to someone’s Xtweet. #14 was the one I am concerned about over all others. Further, it’s the erosion of all our natural rights that I see happening before our eyes that is the most alarming. Good for Bill.
This is an outstanding and timely post. It's central theme, that the current policies and actions of the Democrats are those of an enemy of the United States and are intended to destroy the United States, is accurate and irrefutable. But let's hear our joyful leftist commenters attempt to respond to the author's request to offer an explanation of how any of these policies and actions are good for the wellbeing of this country and its citizens.
Yes, but it’s no good having the “moderate” Democrat win when the party itself has gone so far Left.
Note: the 33 are not the acts of merely Biden / Harris. The entire Democratic Party supports each and every one of them. Kamala is a poorer candidate than Generic Democrat, but Generic Democrat would still be a poor choice.
G-Pub
It isn’t about who he is, but what he said.
Exactly! We should be listening to Taylor Swift!
David Foster posted an unrolled version at Chicago Boyz
Secondly, isn't Bill Ackman the exact kind of elite egghead that you all contend is destroying the country?
So you're saying even some of them think we've gone too far?
I can see where you got confused. Rather than standing on his credentials and telling everyone to simply vote his recommendation, he laid out exactly why he was voting for Trump to allow reasonable people to both specifically object and to consider the arguments when coming to their own conclusions.
It's not like on the left where tens of "experts" sign on to someone else's pre-written statement, with threat of repercussions if they don't...
I read this right after reading a Politico article telling Kamala what she must do to win. It essentially said, "tell them how centrist you are." It was almost totally devoid of anything specific, since it's unstated assumption throughout was that she was not really centrist but should try to appear to be. Ackman's remarkable specificity and the Democrats' hiding and obfuscation are the central forces now driving this campaign.
Ackman has done a public service. Even so, his list is incomplete. Every social institution that would enable the next generation to appreciate its extraordinary good fortune, and to flourish by transmitting the best of our civilization to their successors, is under attack. The list could just keep going, though in fairness I must concede that the BidenHarris cabal has in many respects merely continued and amplified the obsessions of the woke mind virus that predated 2020.
For argument’s sake, let’s reject the They-Hate-America-and-wish-to-Destroy-It motivation. What is the better explanation? Is there One? Or are there 33 separate explanations? I prefer to think They-Love-America-but-are-Misguided-and-Stupid, but sometimes that explanation seems inadequate.
G-Pub
Except, there's no universe where Maher is voting R.
Secondly, isn't Bill Ackman the exact kind of elite egghead that you all contend is destroying the country?
Principles before principals, which by conservative convention acknowledge principals. Americans, by consensus, do not exercise liberal license to indulge Diversity dogma popular in progressive sects.
Economist Freder is even less intelligent that his Field Marshal app.
I think it does now.
"hold back armaments and weaponry from our most important ally in the Middle East". Ummm. Would that be who I think it is? How exactly are they an important ally? Seems like they are only an important ally against all the new enemies they have found for us. No Iranian ever called me goy.
Almost 100 years of disinformation was laundered through press, academic, and non-profit assets, until the ideology took root here and grew on its own.
The Jews never seized our embassy and held hostages for 444 days. The Jews never financed acts of terror against us. The Jews don't make a party of marching through the streets chanting "Death to America". So there's that.
Your criticism of me is more of a niggle than my criticism of that phrase. I criticize it because it's popular despite being wrong. It pretends to deeper meaning than it has.
Oso, don't trouble him with facts.
While not all, most of his points are individually an excellent reason to not vote for any Democrat. The fact that the Democrats are campaigning to enact an unrealized capital gains tax is more than sufficient to vote against any Democrat. If one wanted to destroy private retirement plans, personal wealth and the economy, this the way to do so. In 2008, the Obama campaign floated a balloon regarding nationalizing 401k plans and replacing them with a government plan. These communists are still at it. Take them seriously, the really mean it.
Freder types two sentences, and they are BOTH straight up ad hominems.
Ackman made 33 direct, explicit points. Freder addresses zero of them.
Quite a display of intellectual firepower!
The Dems are the enemies of the United States.
The Dems are the enemies of the United States.
"It will be a great day when the ... Democrat party has to hold a bake sale to pay the interest on the debt!"
The US will probably embark on an overall more nationalistic trade policy in 2025. The election will determine the degree and to some extent the kind — subsidies versus tariffs.
Most likely China will pursue a policy of outcompeting the Americans and the Europeans in third-country competition, particularly across the Global South. China will increase scale and competitiveness while the US and Europe give up on industrial scale while institutionalizing in monopoly and trade protected inflation increases. The choice for the US and Europe will be growth and inflation or stagnation and stable prices. Regional differences will grow inside both the US and Europe as centers of economic strength diverge from seats of voting strength. More gridlock.
More economic fracture will translate into a more polycentric geopolitics, both within the democratic alliance and across the Global South. The US will increase its over-investment in global military power. If China counters by investing in economic power across the Global South, it will fill in the vacuums across the higher growth regions of the new emerging global economy. Let the South China Sea go and take on the Indian Ocean and South Atlantic litorals? Time for the Chinese to read their Mahan!
Billionaire backs party that enjoys tax cuts for the wealthy.
The fact that this is considered news is mindboggling.
"“Bad Genes” said...
Billionaire backs party that enjoys tax cuts for the wealthy.
The fact that this is considered news is mindboggling."
Apparently a poor person has never given you a job. If you are on the government grift, can't get that sweet grift without other people's money. As for China, don't sweat it. They are contracting massively on their own. Worse than us. What we need to worry about the Democratic Party adopting CCP economic policies.
Great list from a very accomplished American. Didn’t do it by getting elected and riding the government gravy train. Did it by creating jobs.
Pretty low bar, Oso. I guess we Americans don't ask much of our allies.
Well. Think of two women who love the same man. What do they think of each other?
"Leland
I figured that comment would trigger you and you would whine like a hit dog about it. Grow up someday.
10/12/24, 12:46 PM"
"Triggered" That's what you took from my comment? You might be stupider than the average Althouse leftist. Both of you fucks swung and missed, but at least Tim thought he was addressing the topic. You are just a fucking FOX NEWS stooge. The next time you find yourself apologizing to some antifa-loving anti-American Hamasshole for voting for Trump, I hope you bite your fucking tongue off, you shithead.
Which gets to the heart of the matter. The Democrats believe that protecting the money in your 401K will buy one vote from you, but they can buy three votes from people who don't have a 401K if they steal yours. Hence, in a "democracy", stealing it is a winning strategy. As is importing "voters" who do not have 401Ks.
I'll repeat the pertinent question so that shitheads like Leland can understand the point in question:
Shouldn't those who seek to erase our nation's borders and culture, release criminals among the innocent, kill babies and mutilate children, persecute political opponents and the citizens who support them, and engage in conspiracies to defraud and deceive the public be the ones to apologize and explain their behavior?
That's your topic of discussion, asswipes. Any leftists want to defend the proposition that they shouldn't have to defend their despicable ideology? Any righty want to challenge the social convention of vilifying patriotic behavior and normalizing evil?
Any shitheads wanna just take a dump on the guy asking the question like saggy old fuckface Leland, go fuck yourselves.
4 hours later and not one libtard taking up the mantle to defend their despicable politics. They never will either, they never do. Those who support it wholeheartedly know that it is indefensible, and those who support it out of ignorance rely on not acknowledging reality.
That's a coherent argument against a party that has moved too far to the left. I doubt they'll change direction, even if they lose the Presidential race.
…for the record I’ve never added qualifiers in front if Trump support…
bich does not understand what the Trump tax cuts did. I accept that as evidence of ignorance.
I suspect that the benefits Israel provides us are not talked about. Iran, on the other hand, is an obvious enemy.
bich also has no background on real economics. Try this, for example.
"But where are we going to find that moderate/conservative D nominee?"
That's not how you do it. You vote for the most radical wingnut communist in big enough numbers to distort the primary, and hope that he becomes the nominee that your party can beat.
Why defend their policies? They think they're winning, and explanations are for losers.
It will take the kind of rout that you see when a war finally winds to a close, the absolute, resolute demolition of the enemy, their troops, their infrastructure, the leveling of their ability to make war, and their pleading for mercy, with uncertainty in their eyes that they might not get any. That is the only path to victory.
Otherwise, it will just be more of the same. If a battle is lost, there is no public reflection, no apology, no explanation. For the Progressive Left, or what it has become, there is only the next battle.
Bich - Trump's tax relief will soon expire - and most Americans who are already struggling will struggle more. Not that you idiot leftists give a crap.
"rehajm
…for the record I’ve never added qualifiers in front if Trump support…
10/12/24, 6:05 PM"
I know, I'm watching...
China needs Kamala.
Leftist loyalist Freder did not even bother to read any of it. because - leftist loyalist.
Indeed.
Ona a scale of waste the military is fourth or fifth compared to entitlement programs.
LOL
Cuttin' and pastin' "stuff" he doesn't understand....that's our Li'l Abacus Boy LLR-democratical Rich! (Cue soundtrack)
Over 5 million views, but probably most of them by the choir.
Yeah, triggered. It took three more posts for you to try and explain yourself and failed. You didn’t make a good argument. You whined some more.
Bill Ackman is not a Trump supporter, or perhaps in your case a fan boy. His whole statement is about why he cannot support Democrats, which makes Trump the best option. Ackman is trying to reach out to Democrats that don’t want to associate with you, and you don’t want to associate with anyway, to convince them Trump is better than supporters like you.
The reason Trump is “not 50 points ahead”, is because fan boys like you bring truth to the media distortion that Trump demands unquestioned loyalty from his sycophants. I think Trump, who has been a liberal Democrat most of his life, values liberty much more than people like you. Instead, the media looks for people like you, who can’t form a complete thought without resorting to simple curse words, to highlight the type of supporters Trump attracts. That causes people to think twice about giving you what you want, which hurts Trump.
It is obvious that doesn’t bother you. Every time someone says they’ll vote Trump, but don’t qualify it with a clear statement of loyalty like a Swifty for Taylor, then you whine about it and try to chase them off. It is stupid and counterproductive which is why I’m taking my time to call it out.
Stop it, you are not the Trump supporter you think you are. You are hurting Trump and it is pissing people off. To is too serious for your stupid whining. I repeat, grow up.
Yeah, those damn billionaires are messing things up around here, what with all those tradesmen's vehicles clogging up traffic!
Your entire paragraph is dumb shit. I don't like to engage in back and forth insult fests on a comment board, and you are one of the thickest, stupidest posters at Althouse, so rational discussion is unproductive. But I will repond specifically to this particular bit of braindead inaccuracy:
"Every time someone says they’ll vote Trump, but don’t qualify it with a clear statement of loyalty like a Swifty for Taylor, then you whine about it and try to chase them off. It is stupid and counterproductive which is why I’m taking my time to call it out."
I never, ever call for a statement of loyalty or any such like thing. What I'm calling out is the mewling, cringing equivocation at the beginning of the statement, the bowing and scraping pre-apology for supporting the candidate that wants America and Americans to thrive. I have made this crystal clear every single time I jump on one of you whimpering cucks, just as I did in the very post you are mischaracterizing, you fucking jitbag! Here:
"And yet he was still cowed into apologizing for supporting Trump, and wrote the weakling's inevitable preamble about Trump's supposed imperfections while never a mention of Harris' many fatal flaws."
It's the very first thing I wrote, you fucking, thin-skinned shithead! Stop being such a sensitive pussy, and stand up for your country.
Ackman has been a big-time globalist and Democrat donor for years. Open borders, mass illegal immigration, and use of immigrants to bust unions and replace american workers never bothered him in past. So why now?
One word: Israel. Ackman was outraged at people protesting Israel's genocidal actions and war crimes. He claimed "Antisemitsm" was "out of control" at Harvard because a few Jewish (Israeli?) students got called a few harsh names. Poor babies. And he and other Billionaires along with the ADL got any Ivy League President they didnt like fired because of it.
He obviously trusts Trump, who recognized Jerusalem as the capital, as a more trustworthy friend of Israel. This despite "Kam" having a Jewish Husband, and the fact that almost 1/2 of Biden's cabinet is Jewish.
Anyway, I'm glad he's on the Trump train. The more the merrier. But the man isn't to trusted by any patriotic American.
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