Tuco

Oh, so she probably murdered dozens of babies, if you believe the prolifers.

Trump is going to lose this debate, too.

Nice job on Jan 6.

I see it closer to college football: Alabama beating Peru State doesn't really demonstrate the coach's acumen, but winning ugly would still hurt his image.

The chess metaphor is silly considering how unevenly matched the opponents are. Israel could make dozens of mistakes and still "win."

There was something I saw years ago (probably on Facebook) that talked about what the generations think of each other. For GenX, one of the younger generations considered us "racist." That really surprised me. Then I thought about it for a bit. I thought about how many friends, or friends of friends, who said racist shit. And how I didn't say shit about it. My best friend's Missouri rural cousins how whispered "salt and pepper" when they saw an interracial couple. I thought about the movies I watched - white guys being the best boxers and martial artists. Sure, movies like 48 Hours challenged stereotypes, but still working within the stereotypes - Eddie Murphy was still a crook, or a bum, or a ghetto kid turned cop. I figured we weren't racist, because we weren't as racist as previous generations. But for GenX'rs who don't believe society should have changed, who didn't look at themselves...yeah, Trump's shit will still sell.

And now I am jealous.

538 is showing another poll that shows Trump with a lead in Pennsylvania. The polling company is Patriot Polling. It is run by two college sophomores. They started it two years ago, when they were in high school, as part of young leaders organization.

You can see why he's survived there for so long. Hopefully he can make it another round.

Bacon tries to walk the line between MAGA and moderates, but I think this year there just isn't a line to follow. The State Party refused to endorse him because he isn't MAGA enough. Then he pissed off another chunk of voters by endorsing winner-take-all with 40 days left in the election. But have no fear, the fucking Ashfords are here to save them. Ok, Brad's dead, but Ann still wants to show everyone how centrist she is by endorsing Bacon. Little background: Brad Ashford was the last elected Dem in the district, riding Republican dissension with the incumbent in 2014. He was a boring, milktoast, generic D that Republicans were willing to live with to get rid of the dumber than shit incumbent. He promptly lost to Bacon in 2016, in part because he never held town halls. In 2018, he was upset in the primary to Kara Eastman, a progressive. Kara lost to Bacon by 2 points, which was closer than expected. Early in 2020 Brad said he wasn't going to run again, Kara announced, and then, relatively late, Anne announces she is going to run. Why, I have no idea other than the Ashfords just felt it was their fucking destiny. Kara beat Anne by a good margin, and then, late in the 2020 cycle, Brad endorses Bacon. Bacon wins again. (I ended up seeing Brad in the park a few months later and told him to go fuck himself.) About a year later, Brad dies. (I am so glad we had our talk before he passed way. I would hate to have left anything unsaid.) Now, 2024, and Vargas looks like he is going to beat Bacon. And fucking Ann Ashford endorses Don Bacon. I don't think it's going to matter much. Nobody gave two shits about Ann when she was running. It just pisses me off soooo much that I voted for conservative/centrist Democrats cycle after cycle on the generally accepted belief that a progressive stood no chance. But, when it's the other way around, these fucking cunts feel they need to trip up the viable Democrats who could actually effect meaningful change.

Vance may like debates, but I have seen zero instances of him doing improving his image while speaking in front of a camera. He is consistently saying stupid shit.

The one poll that shows Trump leading in PA, AtlasIntel, has Trump with a slight lead with men and leading with women by 6-7.

I feel there is a non-trivial chance that this debate will end with Walz holding a sobbing Vance, patting him on the head, and repeating "It's not too late to change, son. It's not too late. You can be a better person."

Sure. But if this turns out to be a blowout, what are the chances he routes for the dominant team instead of the state he needs.

Where has this Democratic Party been my whole life? She's trailing with men, so during the big game, that Trump has invested nearly his whole day in, they run a fantastic smack-talk political ad. That's some well down prowrestling shit. And that's normally Trump's niche, which is maybe why she is trailing with men. Stupid fucking men. You don't need to know a thing about policy. You just need to know that Trump is a massive pussy*. The viewing audience will see him wave to the crowd, with his stupid grin, and then watch her call challenge him to a fight. Fucking beautiful. *honestly, I looked for a synonym that would convey the same fullness as meaning. But, nothing fit the bill. The fact that pussy shares two meanings, one of which is wonderful, and the other is not, is just an accident of the English language.

Nebraska v Purdue is the ugliest game I’ve seen in a while.

Call me crazy, but I am betting that Latinos for Trump have zero problem with deporting black people. Not all Latinos hate black people, but some do, and I am betting they vote for Trump.

One problem with radicals is they assume their world views are secretly held by most people. The silent majority. All he has to do is clearly explain it, they will join him in the disgust of having poor black immigrants becoming our neighbors. Vance said the quiet part loud: the important part is to pay attention to the problem Springfield is having, not about whether any cats are being eaten. They think they have a compelling case. Fuck I hope they’re wrong.

Narcissists are so easily manipulated.

Certainly not in 2016.

I guess one aspect that could reduce the bellweatherness of NE-2 is clearly people in Omaha were pissed about the last minute attempt to disenfranchise them. I doubt Harris is leading by 11 points without that. Interesting that in 2016, the good people of Lincoln elected two people who went on to be convicted of felonies.

I'd be curious as to what the "undeliverable" rate is for apartments compared to houses. My wife was doing some work on rent assistance. There were several times when checks were returned several times as undeliverable. She ended up driving around Seattle to hand deliver checks because some postal carriers couldn't figure out the addresses, particularly in poorer areas of town. It was true both for when the checks went directly to the renters and when it was going to the management offices.

I think there is also a bit of "tell me to my face." Trump might say something different when looking Z in the face. Trump might also say something stupid (like "it takes two to tango") that would increase Harris's odds. At the very least, it puts Ukraine in the news and Z can't risk Americans forgetting about the war.

A few days ago there was a discussion on whether the founding fathers were smart men. They were. But, in talking about history, there is that movement to avoid the "great men" interpretation of history - not focus on the people who did the actions but rather the societal changes that made the actions likely or even inevitable. With that in mind, I consider the book "Infamous Scribblers" which talks about the rise of the newspapers and pamphlets that preceded the advent of modern democracy in the US. It makes sense: democracy doesn't really work if people don't have a shared understanding of what is going on in the country. It would have been impractical for George Washington to ride from town to town, screaming out his qualifications and how it applied it the struggles the young country faced. People needed to know what was going on already. They needed to know who the candidates were and how they planned on addressing the problems. Without the printing press, dictatorships, aristocracy, or monarchies are really the only forms of government that make sense. When television came along, it was so important that people have an understanding of what was going on with the world that the government dictated the broadcast stations include x number of hours of news per day as part of the broadcasting license. That is the thing that concerns me the most. You can take out all the "great men" - Trump, Le Pen, Farage, etc. and we still have the problem. How does democracy survive without a shared understanding of the world? How do we promote a shared understanding in the "democratization" of the media? Traditional media and public schools are under attack and they are essential.

"And when is he going to implement this new policy?"