2024 Presidential Election Thread - Let's keep the party going.

[Bozo_Casanova 26460]

15 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

Yeah I saw a truck with a couple of big flags yesterday and I can’t understand why anyone, let along a large cohort, would do something like that. It’s completely out of the ordinary for American politics, and it’s 12 years on now. 

People need community.

[SubliminalHorn 6787]

15 minutes ago, lemonlime said:

I remember saying the first time I saw a trump flag that it was creepy as fuck.  It's cult behavior.   

I’ve seen a couple Harris flags with almost the same design as the trump ones. Normally I’d cringe but fuck it, I’ll allow it

[DDD Dad 14339]

Pick any random Saturday in Fredericksburg if you want to see a full blown parade. 

[SydneyCarton 48106]

24 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Saw someone on Reddit call them ReichtpubliKKKans.  It was a lot, but I kind of like Reichtpublicans. 

Klan Karenhood imo 

[LCHorn 2620]

2 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

Pick any random Saturday in Fredericksburg if you want to see a full blown parade. 

Fredericksburg is so weird.  The residents are typically very friendly, the town is charming, it's the rare small town in a rural area that's thriving in the 21st century, plus tons and tons of outside investment and high-earning immigration. 

It's like all that is cover for the Klan. 

[Aqua Buddha 14596]

14 minutes ago, DDD Dad said:

Pick any random Saturday in Fredericksburg if you want to see a full blown parade. 

 

8 minutes ago, LCHorn said:

Fredericksburg is so weird.  The residents are typically very friendly, the town is charming, it's the rare small town in a rural area that's thriving in the 21st century, plus tons and tons of outside investment and high-earning immigration. 

It's like all that is cover for the Klan. 

Over on the travel forum, I have a thread about where to retire and Fredericksburg should be high on the list but not even on it and for that reason.  Bat shit local politics under the surface and then the bat shit state politics.  (The weather is another problem.)

But yeah, great town on the surface but kinda weird when you start really looking.

[chainsaw 9868]

46 minutes ago, Js1 said:

Suffolk had another poll last night for AZ - Trump +6.  And winning Maricopa. 

Everything is all over the place - Trump is not winning Maricopa.  Even the NYT poll didn't find that! 

PARTY ID

174  Republican, 172 Independent, 150 Dems in the sample.

RACE

346 White, 91 Hispanic, 21 Black in the sample.

EDUCATION

194 College degrees, 150 HS or less, 123 "some college" and 29 trade/tech school

2020 VOTE

224 Biden 2020 voters, 222 Trump 2020 voters, 32 non-voters, 9 "refused" (that's probably Trump), 7 undecided 2020 voters, 6 third-party 2020 voters

SELF-IDENTIFIED POLITICAL IDEOLOGY

161 self-described moderates, 123 self-described "somewhat conservative", 86 self-described "very conservative", 72 self-described "somewhat liberal", 49 self-described "very liberal" and 9 everything else

SELF-IDENTIFIED RELIGIOSITY

220 consider religion "very important", 119 consider religion "somewhat important", 103 consider religion "not at all important", 49 consider religion "not very important" with 6 refusing to answer and 3 undecided.

[Pato del Muerto 52498]

33 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

People need community.

 

fucking PA

[atomheartbevo 89668]

1 hour ago, Bookman said:

I was in Gruene yesterday early evening and a Trump train came through. I had never seen that in person before. 

Did you see an orgy with Trumpkins or a line or vehicles with Trump stuff on it?

[atomheartbevo 89668]

4 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Low point for even Carlson by putting someone this mentally ill on his stage and profiting from it.

Republicans don't care because she was is a celebrity (regardless of how washed up she is) and it's her and the Kid Rocks or the Charlie Kirks and Ben Shapiros.

They don't have anybody like Mark Cuban out there.

[MissingInAction 25076]

6 hours ago, Born to Run said:

Me thinks Trip, Smitty and Chaz will fail to surprise. And thier dates will be like omg who?

Don't forget about Sqwee.

[MissingInAction 25076]

47 minutes ago, immamac said:

Everyone who keeps thinking it's incredible how stupid these people are just doesn't get out much in a post covid world. 

The majority of people I interact with in public are completely clueless to virtually anything outside of what's immediately impacting them, some that scope is in the moment, but others it's that day or week. 

There seems to be a complete lack of long term vision for the large majority of the American population. 

I had to beg a few of my closest friends to watch the last debate. They were absolutely disgusted by what they saw. One said , I had no idea he was that fucking crazy.

These are educated affluent people. They just don't pay attention politics at all.

[DigglerontheHoof 21199]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Seeing that kind of personality cult on display at the local level is disheartening and feels very unamerican. 

[Superhero 8830]

59 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

People need community.

[DigglerontheHoof 21199]

Just now, Superhero said:

I think that's cummunity. 

[Pancho 44803]

 

[Hiphopopotamos 20873]

12 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I had to beg a few of my closest friends to watch the last debate. They were absolutely disgusted by what they saw. One said , I had no idea he was that fucking crazy.

These are educated affluent people. They just don't pay attention politics at all.

I took a break from twitter for a couple of weeks and it surprised me just how little news I consume outside of that app.   I have youtubeTV but I really only use it for live sports.  I don't seek out news programs and I don't have a paper delivered to the house.  Yes, occasionally I'd see a headline or link that piqued my interest but for the most part unless I was searching for Harris/Trump news it was fairly easy to avoid.  Contrary to what seems to be conventional wisdom - I think for the vast majority of people, in this streaming age, it is easier than ever to divorce yourself from what is going on outside of your little bubble.  People generally avoid talking politics at work nowadays and families don't sit around the table reading the paper.

[elfenix 34240]

22 hours ago, Snake Diggity said:

With 39 days to go, WI and MI polling show that without some kind of course reversal, they will go to Harris without much chance of dispute.  That puts the map at 251-219 in favor of Harris with NV, AZ, GA, PA, and NC in play.  The sum of polls for them have all very slightly favored Harris.  Harris needs to avoid anything that can change the trajectory while busting ass to stretch PA to get the margin wide enough to prevent Trump from viably contesting the result.

Trump’s ceiling is 287 with another 26 being close enough to contest.

Harris’s ceiling is 318 with another 47 being close enough to contest.

My current prediction is Harris winning 302-236, with Trump, with no proof, crying foul and trying to overturn results in NC, PA, AZ, and WI, while actual fraud (in Trump’s favor) is found in OH and FL.

honestly i think the only thing that could really sink her at this point is the jobs report going negative. still have two of those to go.

[YChang 3444]

17 minutes ago, DigglerontheHoof said:

Hell, a lot of the pageantry and rituals they observed, learned, and adapted from American college sports. So very American. 

[YChang 3444]

24 minutes ago, MissingInAction said:

I had to beg a few of my closest friends to watch the last debate. They were absolutely disgusted by what they saw. One said , I had no idea he was that fucking crazy.

These are educated affluent people. They just don't pay attention politics at all.

You should show others like them that Walz clip of him speaking with the young college kids… paraphrasing of how you may not care about politics but politics cares about you. 

[Royalfan5 2354]

9 minutes ago, elfenix said:

honestly i think the only thing that could really sink her at this point is the jobs report going negative. still have two of those to go.

Weekly data has been pretty strong this month, so it'd really need to crater in October to show big changes. 

[quigley 1563]

2 hours ago, Js1 said:

Trump will go to the friendly confines of an Athens, Tuscaloosa, College Station or Norman. I don’t think he’d be caught dead at a game in Austin, Nashville, Columbus, Ann Arbor, Madison, Raleigh/Durham, etc. 

Clarke County went for Biden 70 - 30.

[Underdog 28633]

Coach shirt came in last week and thinking about wearing it to a local Oktoberfest tomorrow, wife is worried I’m asking for trouble. 

[Snake Diggity 4624]

8 minutes ago, elfenix said:

honestly i think the only thing that could really sink her at this point is the jobs report going negative. still have two of those to go.

There’s a ton that could go wrong.  Either Harris or Walz could have a major health problem or be assassinated.  The Middle East could break out into full scale war (Israeli ground invasion into Lebanon, Iranian/Saudi attack on Israel).  A terrorist attack on US soil.  A black stock market event (e.g. Nvidia found fraudulent, hundreds of billions in value obliterated).  A scandal on Harris or Walz (infidelity, corruption).

Even though Harris appears to be leading across all the swing states, we’re still talking about just tens of thousands of votes in 3-4 states making the difference.  A lot of bad shit can happen in 38 days.

[Chuckie Finster 22694]

9 minutes ago, Hiphopopotamos said:

I took a break from twitter for a couple of weeks and it surprised me just how little news I consume outside of that app.   I have youtubeTV but I really only use it for live sports.  I don't seek out news programs and I don't have a paper delivered to the house.  Yes, occasionally I'd see a headline or link that piqued my interest but for the most part unless I was searching for Harris/Trump news it was fairly easy to avoid.  Contrary to what seems to be conventional wisdom - I think for the vast majority of people, in this streaming age, it is easier than ever to divorce yourself from what is going on outside of your little bubble.  People generally avoid talking politics at work nowadays and families don't sit around the table reading the paper.

Yep - it's remarkable how easy it is to just tune out.  

Every single time I return to twitter after a break, it feels like this:

Not to keep beating a dead horse, but it's why I feel so strongly about the need for the campaign to do untraditional media.  It's really easy for people to tune out the news, so if you are trying to win over new voters, you need to show up on their entertainment podcasts/sports pre game shows/etc. to get your message across.

[quigley 1563]

1 hour ago, Js1 said:

Suffolk had another poll last night for AZ - Trump +6.  And winning Maricopa. 

Everything is all over the place - Trump is not winning Maricopa.  Even the NYT poll didn't find that! 

Pole is ass my dude. Unless they have a response rate in the 20% range it's ALL MEDIA SPIN.

Edited September 27 by quigley

[quigley 1563]

6 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Coach shirt came in last week and thinking about wearing it to a local Oktoberfest tomorrow, wife is worried I’m asking for trouble. 

I wear my Jon Tester shirt out all the time.

Life's too short to be worried about crap like this.

 

[Js1 85337]

19 minutes ago, quigley said:

Pole is ass my dude. Unless they have a response rate in the 20% range it's ALL MEDIA SPIN.

What’s your dude thinking this week?

[Brisketexan 105139]

1 hour ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

People need community.

There's a whole thing to be written here, because this is spot-on.  At this time in history, we are at a terrible intersection of the cultural phenomena of 1) peak toxic-individualism (the individual is god...and anything remotely good for society/community is evil communism from the devil) and 2) the inherent, natural, and reactionary desperate desire for community that comes when one is self-isolated like one does in an environment of toxic individualism.  People are desperate for community, and as we've destroyed or so denigrated our institutions that used to provide that community, they need to find/create community elsewhere.  And that leads to many people finding/creating it in the worst possible ways.

TLDR; we have charged headlong into individualism and loneliness, which leads to a desperate impulse to find/create community, which desperation leads to bad decisions in creating said community.  Making a movement like MAGA a natural and expected outcome.

5 hours ago, Nice Guy Eddie said:

Low point for even Carlson by putting someone this mentally ill on his stage and profiting from it.

Oh....you think that Tucker has "low points."  How adorable.  Dude, remember the rules: there is no bottom, and it only gets worse.

[Js1 85337]

 

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11669]

40 minutes ago, elfenix said:

honestly i think the only thing that could really sink her at this point is the jobs report going negative. still have two of those to go.

you're leaning on the exactness of polls where even the biggest poll believer would acknowledge very ordinary error exceeds the margins.

[Js1 85337]

Yes we know. Polls are only ever off in Trump’s favor. Even the ones that are weighing more heavily with rural non college whites. Still off in his favor. 

WE GET IT 

[High Plains Drifter 11049]

 

I was walking the dogs yesterday, and stopped to briefly talk to a neighbor, whom I probably haven't actually talked to in years, other than a wave. He's an old, even older than me, and of course had to bring up DoTArd and Comrade Kamala. (I never talk politics with my neighbors because they are all old retirees, with few exceptions, and I assume very turmpy). 

He rambled for a bit, then I finally asked: "So, shark or electrocution?" He looked at me blankly for a moment. I took that moment to back out of the conversation. "Dinners about ready, I'll see you around. Let's go dogs."  

 

[atomheartbevo 89668]

I can't find the video now, but somebody posted a clip of Cuban talking about how the right-wingers took over the MSM media, from the evening ratings to pushing CNN right to the podcasts, etc.

He's right, but he's not talking about why the right-wingers are pushing this stuff to the top - These shows do not dominate the media, and CNN does not lean right, and the podcasts don't rocket up the charts because MAGA is happy with their lives - they do so because MAGA is a bunch of unhappy motherfuckers who have to have people telling them how they are being victimized (even if they aren't really being victimized). They need Rogan to make them feel smart. They need Hannity to tell them that their fuckups or their lot in life is not their fault.

I'm not saying all liberals are happy, but I was thinking about it after Cuban made his comments, and why his comments ring true, and I think about my hardcore MAGA relatives and acquaintances, and they consume this MAGA shit for hours in the evening - Hannity, etc. It's just talking heads regurgitating Trump talking points (oddly enough they don't seem to watch a lot of Trump speeches). And they seem to lean heavy on the cable TV subscriptions.

My liberal relatives and acquaintances - they might put on CNN or MSNBC in the evening for a little news or a specific guest (if they have those services - they tend to be cord cutters), but otherwise they are on Netflix or Disney or AppleTV or whatever. They maybe liberals, but they don't need to listen to liberals talking at them for hours in the evening.

[TexEx15 17528]

[tbone_ 14123]

I can't find the video now, but somebody posted a clip of Cuban talking about how the right-wingers took over the MSM media, from the evening ratings to pushing CNN right to the podcasts, etc.

He's right, but he's not talking about why the right-wingers are pushing this stuff to the top - These shows do not dominate the media, and CNN does not lean right, and the podcasts don't rocket up the charts because MAGA is happy with their lives - they do so because MAGA is a bunch of unhappy motherfuckers who have to have people telling them how they are being victimized (even if they aren't really being victimized). They need Rogan to make them feel smart. They need Hannity to tell them that their fuckups or their lot in life is not their fault.

I'm not saying all liberals are happy, but I was thinking about it after Cuban made his comments, and why his comments ring true, and I think about my hardcore MAGA relatives and acquaintances, and they consume this MAGA shit for hours in the evening - Hannity, etc. It's just talking heads regurgitating Trump talking points (oddly enough they don't seem to watch a lot of Trump speeches). And they seem to lean heavy on the cable TV subscriptions.

My liberal relatives and acquaintances - they might put on CNN or MSNBC in the evening for a little news or a specific guest (if they have those services - they tend to be cord cutters), but otherwise they are on Netflix or Disney or AppleTV or whatever. They maybe liberals, but they don't need to listen to liberals talking at them for hours in the evening.

In other words, outrage sells.

[linux 1660]

46 minutes ago, YChang said:

Hell, a lot of the pageantry and rituals they observed, learned, and adapted from American college sports. So very American. 

Hell Aggies really, Hitler and Patton were always so enthusiastic about them, how they could win all wars with them, "give me a handful of Texas aggies!", "If only I had yell practice before Stalingrad!" they go on and on and on.

PS In all seriousness Patton was a proto-MAGA, the orange man's favorite General for a reason.

[The Dog 44051]

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

 

I follow a few pro-Ukraine Republicans on xitter (my original reason for signing up was to follow accounts that cover the war). 

They are having a very hard time with Trump's comments on Russia/Ukraine.

They've had their heads buried in the sand on this issue and Trump coming out and just blasting Ukraine has really done a number on them. 

I just can't wrap my head around where they are coming from - they complain that the Biden admin isn't doing enough to help Ukraine, yet they will vote for the guy who will abandon them?

Kind of the right wing version of the "uncommitted" idiots who are pissed over Palestine. 

 

[Ghost of LL 15531]

3 hours ago, SubliminalHorn said:

That fucker better not go to the Texas-Georgia game 

I doubt he could afford a ticket.

[Brisketexan 105139]

16 minutes ago, Js1 said:

 

"It takes two to tango."

Just realize and remember that Trump would say the exact same thing if the person standing next to him was the victim of someone who raped them every single night.  "I have a very good relationship with the rapist, and we'll get this solved very quickly."  Rape Victim: "Ummm, I hope you have a better relationship with me, the rape victim."  "Well, it takes two to tango."

He's a fucking evil psychopath.  Full stop.

[chainsaw 9868]

He's going to protect Zelenskyy the way he protected Jamal Khashoggi.

 

[linux 1660]

5 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

I can't find the video now, but somebody posted a clip of Cuban talking about how the right-wingers took over the MSM media, from the evening ratings to pushing CNN right to the podcasts, etc.

He's right, but he's not talking about why the right-wingers are pushing this stuff to the top - These shows do not dominate the media, and CNN does not lean right, and the podcasts don't rocket up the charts because MAGA is happy with their lives - they do so because MAGA is a bunch of unhappy motherfuckers who have to have people telling them how they are being victimized (even if they aren't really being victimized). They need Rogan to make them feel smart. They need Hannity to tell them that their fuckups or their lot in life is not their fault.

I'm not saying all liberals are happy, but I was thinking about it after Cuban made his comments, and why his comments ring true, and I think about my hardcore MAGA relatives and acquaintances, and they consume this MAGA shit for hours in the evening - Hannity, etc. It's just talking heads regurgitating Trump talking points (oddly enough they don't seem to watch a lot of Trump speeches). And they seem to lean heavy on the cable TV subscriptions.

My liberal relatives and acquaintances - they might put on CNN or MSNBC in the evening for a little news or a specific guest (if they have those services - they tend to be cord cutters), but otherwise they are on Netflix or Disney or AppleTV or whatever. They maybe liberals, but they don't need to listen to liberals talking at them for hours in the evening.

Hatred is like a drug addiction, it wires your brain to want more more more now the absolute bile thrown at undocumented immigrants does not even pause the democrats anymore, when it is the most inhumane scapegoating I have ever lived to see in my life. In WWII tens of millions of mostly men died in the war, the vast majority full believers in Nazi ideology, those that remain underwent a no nonsense full denazification detox. Anybody that does not see the largest denazification in history as our main goal is deluding themselves.

Nowadays people can't even support something like the Fairness Doctrine again, I honestly see no hope aside from getting lucky on their idiocy and us getting lucky in these electoral college selections.

[Pancho 44803]

 

[Red Five 40858]

 

“I have a good relationship with the guy who invaded your country and is killing your people.”

[kevwun 15788]

I'm also going to do everything I can to help him win.  Now smile for the cameras.  I bet Zelensky was in a really foul mood after that bs.

Edited September 27 by kevwun

[High Plains Drifter 11049]

9 minutes ago, kevwun said:

I'm also going to do everything I can to help him win.  Now smile for the cameras.  I bet Zelensky was in a really foul mood after that bs.

 

Zel should have just sucker punched him. 

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23367]

It’s amazing because Trump has run the second worst campaign I have ever seen… and he still has a shot… because almost half of our population is willing to abandon nearly every moral and ethical principle for the illusion of political power and liberal tears.   A massive ongoing tragedy our institutions refuse to adequately address. 

[OU Sucks 8820]

3 hours ago, 4th&Five said:

Harris needs to create ads targeting those affected by Hurricane Helene, explaining that Trump’s Project 2025 proposes eliminating FEMA, NOAA and the NWS.

"nOW Is NoT THE tIME tO be POLiTiCAL!!!1"

[Tuco 5076]

25 minutes ago, atomheartbevo said:

My liberal relatives and acquaintances - they might put on CNN or MSNBC in the evening for a little news or a specific guest (if they have those services - they tend to be cord cutters), but otherwise they are on Netflix or Disney or AppleTV or whatever. They maybe liberals, but they don't need to listen to liberals talking at them for hours in the evening.

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.  

[hookem2010 2624]

5 minutes ago, Hugo Stiglitz said:

It’s amazing because Trump has run the second worst campaign I have ever seen… and he still has a shot… because almost half of our population is willing to abandon nearly every moral and ethical principle for the illusion of political power and liberal tears.   A massive ongoing tragedy our institutions refuse to adequately address. 

Worst campaign, worst candidate, would be oldest president. What's not to love?