Old Freak Nasty

If NC and GA get called before 1am I can actually get some sleep tonight. I don't expect NC personally, though.

I am an American Indian, born in rural Pennsylvania while my dad attended Penn State for graduate school in the 70s. He was accepted by all on campus, but encountered plenty of racism when outside of it, going to get groceries or go to a restaurant. My dad played national level basketball in India (not a particularly impressive achievement in the 1960-70s) but it did give him the crack in the door to make friendships with non-Indian people around State College. It had fast become his first love in India and he was amazed at the access he’d have to courts once he moved here. He played basically any time he wasn’t studying and he credits it as THE reason he survived the first few years alone while my mom was still in India before he could get a job and sponsor her to come over. He made friends, met families, ate midwest heartland home cooked food, started drinking socially, went bowling, played golf, and experienced so many other American cultural institutions because of the connections basketball provided him. More importantly, after my mom was able to move, this support system provided a lifeline which if she hadn’t had I’m not sure I’d have ever been born here. Strangers to her (not my dad) would take her grocery shopping. They’d invite her over for tea and sit and watch American soap operas for hours without saying a word to each other. Because they couldn’t! They’d go for walks and my mom slowly learned some phrases and in a couple years she was a fairly competent speaker. She overcame her embarrassment of sharing Indian food (the strong flavors, the smell, etc) and invited friends for dinner. She said they sometimes barely ate any of it but they always smiled and were grateful for the invite. She got a job shelving products at the local grocery store. There she encountered the ugly head of racism every day. But she always went back, day after day, held her head up and did her work. At first, co-workers started dropping the veil of hatred, then some regular customers. She learned that only intimate social exchanges change minds, but that they do! My parents raised me informed by these experiences. They wanted me to be an American Indian, with both feet firmly planted in both cultures. My dad passed on his love of basketball (and sport in general) to me. But I was made sure to love cricket as well. Since my earliest memories, we celebrated Christmas. We also celebrated Diwali. There were no temples around growing up so we learned religion at home with my parents. My parents always tried to make connections with other parents at school. A lot of times the parents sneered, my mom would still feel most comfortable wearing Indian clothes so she’d often come to the bus stop and that stopped a lot of other moms from having conversations with her. But she also made friends by reaching out. Our home became where my friends congregated after school, most likely because my mom always kept the pantry stocked with Twinkies, cookies, ice cream, chips, and soda or whatever else she needed to buy to bribe my “friends”. Because of all this, I’ve always felt like I’ve known who I am and I have grown up to have great admiration for my country and proud to be an American. As I’ve become more self-aware that America’s diversity is its strength after college, each year goes by and I know that greatness is in this country. America is great because we have African-Americans, Asian-Americans, Latin-Americans, AND the Americans that have been here for hundreds of years. This is my America. Our America. The America we love. I don’t really know why I’m writing this post today and if it makes any sense. But it’s helping calm my nerves today. I don’t want my love and faith in this nation to be broken tonight. Being American is my identity. I don’t know if it will be at the end of this election. There can be two seemingly incongruous things about this nation we hold dear: 46% of the country is happy to be lead into a fascist, racist, misogynistic, dictatorial regime whose policies largely mirror those of the Taliban. It’s also true that we are on the precipice of electing a Black and Indian woman as our Madame President. To close, on this past October 12, Hindus celebrated Dussehra. I’ll spare the detail of the reason for the celebration but it represents the victory of good over evil. Today, I will celebrate Dussehra again. To my Surly brothers and sisters, I wish for all of us a Happy Dussehra tonight. I'll see you all at Chili's tomorrow.

I'd like for mega-donor and corporate sponsorship of politicians to be banned. Then I'd be fine with being bludgeoned by fundraising texts by politicians every hour.

I don't know what you mean. It was the bestest economy. No one had better tariffs. We had so many white jobs. Some would call it the perfect economy.

I thought I had read an article somewhere a year or so ago about the effects of natural disasters on voting patterns and that there was no correlation to any shift.

Seems like we are in spitting distance of picking off the Senate seat. That would be a great outcome considering what the state has become since the 2018 election.

Hi JD Vance!

There was also no Fox News 100 years ago. What's happening now is a systemic two pronged assault on a functional democracy. Destroying educational attainment and critical thinking skills coupled with focus group tested non-stop propaganda. The combination of the two has broken morality for 45% of the electorate.

Is this specific to national polling? When the same firms conduct swing state polls are they using similar methodology prone to the same under-representation? This seems to point to an ass kicking which I can't get myself to believe yet.

Do they not realize that to have any chance to excise Trump they need to vote FOR Harris? He needs to be beaten so badly that even the GQP will dump him. Sitting out doesn't really run up the margins needed for the party to summon the courage to overthrow dear leader. But of course logic doesn't reign even amongst the educated elites in the GQP.

This seems like the absolutely best case scenario if if Trump gets 90% vote share of the undecideds. A good reminder that even given the trainwreck of his campaign, he can win. We all need to vote early so election day shenanigans cannot happen. People turned away, a shooting at a voting location early in the day that scares urban voters from standing in long lines, etc.

The only time the GQP asks or demands for accountability of it's own members is when evidence mounts of his/her elect-ability loser stench. Fuck all these people but I'll have my popcorn ready when the tables turn on Trump as he finds himself on the way to prison and Trump napalms any last sign of the party trying to move on with his idiot MAGAts in tow. We need to all push Harris across the finish line so we can bear witness to the self-immolation of the GQP.

Since Haitians is code for non-white, it might affect Usha's kids. I only say might in terms of before the election. They will eventually feel the hate.

I'm not sure how the numbers would work out, but wouldn't any statistical model give Trump a significant chance at PV victory? The raw numbers for the 2020 election was 51.8 to 46.8 percent. Texas was almost a flip of that result, 52.06 to 46.48 percent. I'd believe the soundness of a model that formulated Harris had a 40% chance of winning Texas, even if I also know that there's no chance in hell of it happening. Same for the general. It's not like the polls or actual results are indicating a 20 point pummeling (they should, but alas).

Generally I agree, but I'd say in North Carolina this is probably the favored outcome at this point in time. If Harris nabs NC, she's going to win the whole enchilada of swing states and put Florida within spitting distance. Texas, of course, will remain stupid.

Dick Cheney is the second most vile and evil American politician ever by a good margin and he's saying he is voting for a Democrat black woman over the only piece of shit who has managed to usurp him from his rightful place at the top of that list. That is something.

Reading mainstream news websites tonight, I'm struck by how far these outlets are going to "report" the news that the race, at this point in time, is razor thin and is a moments away from Trump leading again. Cloaking themselves in the cape of margin of error, they not so transparently editorialize for clicks. Even given the litany of evidence that Trump is scattershot and incoherent, they almost universally make the claim that Harris is the one to be afraid of Trump's rhetoric. None of it makes sense in the slightest and none of it is news. It's a big ass op-ed cesspool, fooling less informed readers into thinking Trump is leading fishing for rage and fear clicks. I'm not sure if there is even a point I'm making, other than I really should just stick to this thread to get the polling. If the election was today these outlets would be proven massively wrong, as Harris would bludgeon Trump. That said, the election is still a while away and things could certainly swing in his favor just enough for him to squeak by. But the only candidate that has a path to an EC bloodbath is Harris, the polling seems to point. MSM is disingenuous. That might be serving a point in that we have to resource this fight through election day and not take a vote for granted no matter how good it looks in the present. It still annoys the hell out of me reading these stupid articles.

Indian aunties won't ask you. They will gently put it in your mouth if you don't yourself, and shove it in if they have to.

I'm impressed that whomever wrote "FREEDOM" on his boobs spelled it correctly.

The 2024 DNC is the therapy that I never realized I needed until yesterday. I believe some weight has been lifted off my shoulders. I had already asked my wife if I could sign up for phone bank duty a couple weeks ago and she was rightfully non-committal given the projects I had wanted to focus on at work before the end of the year on top of home stuff. After Walz was done, she said, let's do the phone banks together and that we'll figure out. Then she cracked, "we don't have to wait til we die to sleep, we just have to wait until 2025". My wife didn't know about Walz's IVF journey. We are both the children of two immigrants and have two kids because of IVF (several failed IUIs and one failed IVF before a successful pregnancy). These motherfuckers have pissed off the wrong woman. We're going to fucking "DO SOMETHING"

Michigan has some attractive politicians. Gretchen, Jocelyn Benson and Dana Nessel. And they are some tough ass SOBs too to fearlessly deal with all the psycho MAGAs swatting, death threats and who knows what else.

Modern day axis of evil.

Mr. Michelle Obama was great as usual, but Michelle's tribute to her mother and connecting those values to the greatness of the fabric of this nation and Kamala and Tim, and her call to action to close out her speech was some of the best, most impassioned monologues I've ever heard. You could feel her pain of what Trump has afflicted on this nation and democracy that she has such reverence for. I may not have realized this before, but in the post-Obama world, I've felt as a child born in the US with two immigrant parents that this country is somehow not mine and slipping away from me. Fuck these people for making feel like that. Watching Michelle speak today gave me a little of that pride back. I'm an American and I love this country. Thank you Michelle, thank you Kamala, thank you Tim Walz, thank you Rev. Warnock, thank you AOC, and so many others for the words many of us needed to hear these past two nights and the weeks since Biden stepped aside.

That may have been the greatest speech I have ever witnessed in my life. Gotdamn Michelle.

I mean, Soros does have a lot of money.