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

[Chopper 16,713]

This makes a good point

 

They can only turn to help from weirdos like Graham, Vivek, Desantis, Ron Johnson, Bannon, Kirk, the demented Kennedy from Louisiana because they've all become the same fuckin imbecile, made in the image that Trump wants. 

 

[Brisketexan 103,660]

1 minute ago, RomaVicta said:

You're one horny motherfucker these days, my friend.

????

I have appreciated the feminine ALL of my days, amigo.

[Gil Bang 25,690]

3 hours ago, Pancho said:

My Latino brothers! You time has come 

 

So, expect this to get rolling around 7:40 or so?

[Bozo_Casanova 25,912]

8 minutes ago, babysdaddy said:

 

 

Trump getting 25% support among blacks with Harris at only 67% in this poll. lol OK
Mark Penn's outfit, the 161st ranked pollster according to 538. 

[Huckleberry 32,417]

30 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

This thread isn't the place to debate it, but I strongly disagree that normie Republican policy orthodoxy on taxes and guns (insofar as I find the former ridiculous and the latter hypocritical and amoral in the extreme) is what brought their party to this point. What led their party to this point is decades of pandering to people they used to reject in order to acquire and consolidate power, and a shocking lack of personal integrity among elected Republicans once they did. 

Their taxes and guns positions were only ever about "I gotta get me mine, screw everybody else" which is the starting point of a line that ends exactly where they are now. 

Put more charitably for those who truly were the frogs in the pot and didn't start out extreme, unlike the power brokers, believing in nothing except individuals over society necessarily ends up here. Personal freedom, individual liberty, and the right to be left alone all sound like good ideas in theory. But they only work within a functioning society; the Republican messaging that has fetishized the rugged individual and demonized collective society for decades absolutely leads to their current state.

And I don't say this with pure malice by any means. All of that appealed to me as well for many years. But then I grew up and realized that we have moral responsibilities to help people less fortunate than we are, to follow the golden rule and leave others alone if we went to be left alone, and to share financial responsibility for valid government services as fairly as possible. And those pretty obvious truths are antithetical to the Republican Party. I was just a kid when the first clue made itself clear (GOP control led to higher deficits putting the lie to the "party of fiscal responsibility" BS).

So yeah, I will deride a grown man who only just now started figuring it out. But maybe not to his face because the country needs him to vote correctly and his tweet shows that he might not if he gets his feelings hurt. 

[Dahobbs 17,255]

22 minutes ago, babysdaddy said:

 

 

LOL, an online poll that has Trump winning the 18-24 age group, losing women only 44%-48%, winning independents 46-41, and getting 25% of AA vote, Sure. 

Edited July 30 by Dahobbs

[Js1 83,695]

3 minutes ago, Bozo_Casanova said:

Trump getting 25% support among blacks with Harris at only 67% in this poll. lol OK
Mark Penn's outfit, the 161st ranked pollster according to 538. 

Harvard-Harris ain’t a good pollster. Throw it on the pile 

[randomhorn 1,522]

53 minutes ago, sidis said:

wait, has anyone here ever read "les enfants terribles" by cocteau or "chéri" by colette?

No, but I'm very familiar with Metal Gear Solid

[Jive Turkey 12,441]

2 hours ago, Sawbonz said:

Can’t wait for the Samoans 

Edited July 30 by Jive Turkey

[Pato del Muerto 52,119]

11 minutes ago, Brisketexan said:

????

I have appreciated the feminine ALL of my days, amigo.

The chalice

[Dahobbs 17,255]

15 minutes ago, RomaVicta said:

You're one horny motherfucker these days, my friend.

Just these days? 

[Dahobbs 17,255]

14 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

This makes a lot of sense to me.

I’m pretty sure there are a whole bunch of people who have finally and maybe reluctantly come to the conclusion that Trump is a jackass and is not good for the county but still deep down believe that the “liberal left agenda” is not good for the country either. Seems to me these people are the key to the election. They are there for taking if she comes out and leans moderate vs just trying to lean harder left.

I’ve never understood why the parties seem to decided leaning harder to the extremes is the way to go. Maga certainly sees it that way - see project 2025 or whatever it’s called.

The hardcores are going to vote Trump or Harris no matter what. The first group that figures there are a bunch of people in the middle and how to speak to them wins in a big way imo. I hope it’s her.

Bullshit. The dems have catered to the center for a good while now and it hasn't gotten them anywhere. The right just keeps shifting so far right the very concept of the "middle" has also shifted to the right. People complaining about the "liberal left agenda" have no idea what the fuck that means. The dems need to message better, but they don't actually need to shift their policies away from what is actually popular. 

[immamac 41,753]

if you are going to copy/past getyarn gifs just put the GIF itself. It seems borked for everyone else. 

[Brian Fantana 6,619]

It's incredible how the word weird is just destroying the GQP's collective minds.

[sidis 9,676]

2 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

It's incredible how the word weird is just destroying the GQP's collective minds.

i mean...

 

[Constant 6,554]

1 minute ago, sidis said:

i mean...

 

SO FUCKING WEIRD. 

[randomhorn 1,522]

[BehoId, The Underminer! 11,575]

I read the other day (not here, I don't believe) is part of the power of weird is that it actually stops Ds from making arguments that Rs benefit from.  Part of the allure of Trump is the danger of it. "oooh, he says dictator for a day!" "oooh, he says you won't have to vote again, i'll fix it!" "ooh, he says he'll pardon jan 6ers!"  All of that is energizing to the right because of the strongman punisher logo 'no more bullshit' bumpersticker undercurrent.  The left can't help but feed into that messaging.  We switch to saying 'a buncha fucking incels' and there is no free advertising in it.

[Brian Fantana 6,619]

4 minutes ago, sidis said:

i mean...

 

That's....I have no words. Incredible.

Just now, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

I read the other day (not here, I don't believe) is part of the power of weird is that it actually stops Ds from making arguments that Rs benefit from.  Part of the allure of Trump is the danger of it. "oooh, he says dictator for a day!" "oooh, he says you won't have to vote again, i'll fix it!" "ooh, he says he'll pardon jan 6ers!"  All of that is energizing to the right because of the strongman punisher logo 'no more bullshit' bumpersticker undercurrent.  The left can't help but feed into that messaging.  We switch to saying 'a buncha fucking incels' and there is no free advertising in it.

It's a much better way to clown on them than calling them racist or Nazis or whatever. Normies hear that and check out. Normies hear you call them weird and they're like "oh yeah, I agree."

[Underdog 28,237]

39 minutes ago, Player said:

So in addition to being a couch fucker…



Vance is also a shower shitter?

WEIRD!

Damn… at least have the decency to do it over the drain.

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,247]

So one way to challenge Trumpers peacefully is to ask them to clearly articulate the “radical far left agenda” they are so afraid of and how exactly the democrats have shown any real policy success in achieving that agenda.  Or how do they imagine the democrats would go about achieving it when they can’t even get $15 minimum wage to pass with a majority in both houses and the presidency?

Then try to thoughtfully articulate the far right agenda and point to all the success they’ve had in the recent past… stripping women’s rights and major tax cuts for the ultra wealthy at the expense of the middle class and the deficit.  Those are their two MAJOR victories over the past 10 years. 

I know this is a lost cause but focusing on the policy stuff gets you in more thought provoking conversations than Trump bad vs Dems more or less bad. 

[Brisketexan 103,660]

20 minutes ago, Huckleberry said:

Their taxes and guns positions were only ever about "I gotta get me mine, screw everybody else" which is the starting point of a line that ends exactly where they are now. 

Put more charitably for those who truly were the frogs in the pot and didn't start out extreme, unlike the power brokers, believing in nothing except individuals over society necessarily ends up here. Personal freedom, individual liberty, and the right to be left alone all sound like good ideas in theory. But they only work within a functioning society; the Republican messaging that has fetishized the rugged individual and demonized collective society for decades absolutely leads to their current state.

And I don't say this with pure malice by any means. All of that appealed to me as well for many years. But then I grew up and realized that we have moral responsibilities to help people less fortunate than we are, to follow the golden rule and leave others alone if we went to be left alone, and to share financial responsibility for valid government services as fairly as possible. And those pretty obvious truths are antithetical to the Republican Party. I was just a kid when the first clue made itself clear (GOP control led to higher deficits putting the lie to the "party of fiscal responsibility" BS).

So yeah, I will deride a grown man who only just now started figuring it out. But maybe not to his face because the country needs him to vote correctly and his tweet shows that he might not if he gets his feelings hurt. 

This is an excellent post.  Yeah, some folks below disagree with you.  And sure, it's about MESSAGING, not reality (Fox news and Rush and all that shit broke a lotta people's brains).  But you know that I am with you on the "the individual is god, the common good is the enemy" ethos being a poison that we've ingested a ton of these past 30 years or so.

My hypothesis is that, as you see things going to shit for you (as they have for the rurals), you naturally begin to think "fuck it, I'll handle everything myself, I'm the only person I can rely on to help me."  I buy that, because I've felt that way at times in my own life.  It's human nature.  So, it's you against the world.  And fuck the world.

The counter-message to that ethos is "man...that sucks.  But we're all in this together.  We HAVE to all be in this together.  What if we worked -- together -- to build something that helped all of us?  You, me, your neighbors?"  Offer that POSITIVE counter-narrative....and KEEP offering it.  It's going to take DECADES to de-program people.  So, let's get to work on that.  Shit like "I'm not running for president of blue states, or red states.  I'm running for president of these UNITED states.  All of us.  Working together for the common purposes that have made this country great, and can make it even better."

[Ted Lange 15,935]

The weird stuff is good, but it should be used against the politicians and highly visible MAGAt mouthpieces only, don't get back into the deplorable stuff.

The next message needs to be a big pushback on DEI.   If they want to talk about unqualified people getting handed jobs, mock the litany of people like the TRUMPS.   Some counter acronym to describe unqualified GOPers who only got their jobs due to who their dad was.

[Hank Kingsley 20,154]

12 minutes ago, BehoId, The Underminer! said:

I read the other day (not here, I don't believe) is part of the power of weird is that it actually stops Ds from making arguments that Rs benefit from.  Part of the allure of Trump is the danger of it. "oooh, he says dictator for a day!" "oooh, he says you won't have to vote again, i'll fix it!" "ooh, he says he'll pardon jan 6ers!"  All of that is energizing to the right because of the strongman punisher logo 'no more bullshit' bumpersticker undercurrent.  The left can't help but feed into that messaging.  We switch to saying 'a buncha fucking incels' and there is no free advertising in it.

Totally agree. 

When people are hysterically mad at Trump, it's what feeds him and his voters. They want that reaction out of you. When you diminish Trump and his cronies and brush them off as weird or awkward people, that response exudes a confidence that makes them all very uncomfortable. 

They. Are. Bullies. That's all. And there is a winning response to bullying, thank god Dems are finally figuring it out. 

 

Edited July 30 by Hank Kingsley

[Red Five 40,455]

The weird stuff is good, but it should be used against the politicians and highly visible MAGAt mouthpieces only, don't get back into the deplorable stuff.
The next message needs to be a big pushback on DEI.   If they want to talk about unqualified people getting handed jobs, mock the litany of people like the TRUMPS.   Some counter acronym to describe unqualified GOPers who only got their jobs due to who their dad was.

And maybe something about hundreds of years of white men being handed stuff because they were white men. The original DEI.

[G650 13,335]

Just now, Red Five said:

And maybe something about hundreds of years of white men being handed stuff because they were white men. The original DEI.

Some people get big mad when I point out the 20th century US was basically welfare for mediocre white dudes.

[HenryJames 65,571]

1 minute ago, G650 said:

Some people get big mad when I point out the 20th century US was basically welfare for mediocre white dudes.

[Js1 83,695]

45 minutes ago, Dutchrudder said:

Interesting to see Luke Wilson getting 7% of the vote in Pennsylvania.

 

 

SPR hadn't polled PA since after Biden's SOTU (Biden +5) so hard to take away much from it, except Harris +4 is +3 to the left from 2020. 

Their final 2020 poll was Trump +1 (Biden +1 actual) and in 2022, Shapiro +14 (Shapiro +15 actual) and Oz +1 (Fetterman +5 actual). 

Edited July 30 by Js1

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,529]

2 minutes ago, Red Five said:

And maybe something about hundreds of years of white men being handed stuff because they were white men. The original DEI.

This offends me as a white man!  I wasn’t handed anything in life except a paid for college education, all of my jobs and tons of cash.  

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,247]

2 minutes ago, G650 said:

Some people get big mad when I point out the 20th century US was basically welfare for mediocre white dudes.

And thus far the 21st century has been welfare for mediocre billionaires. 

[Pato del Muerto 52,119]

3 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

This offends me as a white man!  I wasn’t handed anything in life except a paid for college education, all of my jobs and tons of cash.  

I must have marked the wrong box somewhere along the line. 

[The Original Greaser Bob 2,736]

23 minutes ago, sidis said:

i mean...

 

[Brisketexan 103,660]

4 minutes ago, Beantown Express 2.0 said:

This offends me as a white man!  I wasn’t handed anything in life except a paid for college education, all of my jobs and tons of cash.  

[Js1 83,695]

👀

 

 

[Beantown Express 2.0 6,529]

2 minutes ago, Pato del Muerto said:

I must have marked the wrong box somewhere along the line. 

This seems like a fitting video for the “white man” discussion.  It’s still great after all these years.

 

 

[Hugo Stiglitz 23,247]

That’s a wrap.  Harris/Beshear 

Edited July 30 by Hugo Stiglitz

[babysdaddy 2,708]

 

 

[Hank Kingsley 20,154]

I wouldn't read too much into that Beshear tweet. 

 

[mdmost 42,502]

Disappointed it's not Walz but Beshar is a good move if that's the plan. Red State Governor who can appeal to the middle. I've heard from people in Kentucky that south Pennsylvania is referred to as Pennsytucky because they share a lot of the same demos. If he can appeal to that portion and help wrap up PA then let's go. Walz will be there to help out. 

Edited July 30 by mdmost

[Js1 83,695]

Just now, Hank Kingsley said:

I wouldn't read too much into that Beshear tweet. 

 

This is a very typical move though - everyone caught wind of the enhanced security detail outside Vance's house days before he was named as VP. 

[RomaVicta 29,591]

25 minutes ago, Brian Fantana said:

That's....I have no words. Incredible.

It's a much better way to clown on them than calling them racist or Nazis or whatever. Normies hear that and check out. Normies hear you call them weird and they're like "oh yeah, I agree."

Further, those words have been tuned out. Weird is props up the ears of the attackers and the defenders. It's also, like using irony, difficult to fend off. Trying to prove you're not weird just makes you appear weirder. It's dismissive and evokes laughs about whomever has been so pronounced. 

"Weirdo. Come at me, bro!"

[CooterBrown 17,762]

51 minutes ago, tbone_ said:

the “liberal left agenda” 

Not directed at you but...

• Equal rights
• Fair pay and worker conditions
• Economic security
• Healthcare affordability
• Improved education
• Decreased gun violence
• Improved environmental quality
• Improved civic involvement

Only in America is that a liberal left agenda.

In every other civilized country, those are the goals for everyone.  It's the details on how to achieve it where the differences are found.  What a fucking country.

 

[Aqua Buddha 14,261]

If it's Beshear, that's a good choice.  I've warmed up to Walz but Beshear does a great job of getting right leaning whites to vote for him.  (I'm not sure why but he does.)  He's also younger, which I like.

Harris won't win KY but he'll help in the rest of the Midwest and with suburban whites nationwide.  (Not winning Ohio, either.)

2 minutes ago, Js1 said:

This is a very typical move though - everyone caught wind of the enhanced security detail outside Vance's house days before he was named as VP. 

Yes, if he's getting any SS protection at all, it's him.

[RomaVicta 29,591]

27 minutes ago, Underdog said:

Damn… at least have the decency to do it over the drain.

And give a reach-around!

Oh, wait. That's something else that I know nothing whatsoever about.

[SimonBolivar 10,698]

Not to rain on our "Trumpers are disengaging" parade but my anecdotal evidence is the opposite. Most of my clients are older white dudes and I've seen a Trump car flag and two Trump hats in the last 2 hours. These people don't matter of course in Texas and were always gonna vote R.

[Ghost of LL 15,255]

11 hours ago, Horn Under a Bad Sign said:

My gf just drove from St. Louis down to San Antonio the back way ... down through East Texas (Paris, Sulphur Springs etc ..) without going on any major interstates and said she did not see ONE ... not ONE ... Trump yard sign or flag. That's significant.   I think even his supporters are tiring of his antics. 

Yeah, but I'll tell you that in Preston Hollow the Trump yard signs are out in force.

I'm also going to observe that Preston Hollow is a heavily Jewish neighborhood.  I also saw a couple "USA Stands With Israel" signs.  So maybe that reflects that issue more than any widespread enthusiasm for Trump.

[Js1 83,695]

Even Manchin is on message

 

 

[Aqua Buddha 14,261]

2 minutes ago, Ghost of LL said:

Yeah, but I'll tell you that in Preston Hollow the Trump yard signs are out in force.

I'm also going to observe that Preston Hollow is a heavily Jewish neighborhood.  I also saw a couple "USA Stands With Israel" signs.  So maybe that reflects that issue more than any widespread enthusiasm for Trump.

[NorthLoop 13,954]

I'll say in NB I see a lot less trump flags and signs than I did in '20, and it's pretty red here. 

[Chopper 16,713]

More about the couch fucker

Quote

https://www.businessinsider.com/jd-vance-couch-sex-joke-author-speaks-2024-7

The American electorate is fully in the grip of Couch Discourse.

On July 15, shortly after former President Donald Trump announced Sen. JD Vance would be joining his ticket, the X user @rickrudescalves posted a joke: "can't say for sure but he might be the first vp pick to have admitted in a ny times bestseller to fucking an Inside-out latex glove shoved between two couch cushions (vance, hillbilly elegy, pp. 179-181)."

Needless to say, pages 179 through 181 of "Hillbilly Elegy" are not devoted to an account of Vance's couch surfing, and there's no evidence that he's ever done anything to a couch other than sit on one.

Still, a lot of people found it funny. @rickrudescalves hid the post within a week of publishing it, but the couch joke had already left an impression.

Over the past week, for every seven people searching Google for "JD Vance," one person has searched "JD Vance couch," according to Google Trends. Memes of Vance fantasizing about living-room furnishings have flooded the internet. Despite being, very obviously, a joke, the post was debunked in two fact-checks by mainstream media outlets — one by Snopes and one by The Associated Press (which later deleted the fact-check from its website). Foreseeably and perversely, those debunkings propelled Couch Discourse into the mainstream.

The rumor's spread has also heralded a new style of online engagement from Democrats. In marked contrast to the Obama-era decorum of "when they go low, we go high," Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign has embraced a tongue-in-cheek tone, including writing on X, "JD Vance does not couch his hatred for women."

Related stories

JD Vance is faltering in the Midwest, a big problem for the GOP

Meet the woman who helped boost JD Vance from Ohio obscurity to 'Hillbilly Elegy' superstardom

Couch Discourse even made it to TV. "Where does someone even get an idea like that?" the "Late Show" host Stephen Colbert asked last week.

In a grocery store, the author of the post told Business Insider. In a phone conversation this weekend, he said the idea had struck him while he was shopping the day Vance was announced as Trump's running mate.

BI tracked down the post's author, who we'll call Rick, in keeping with his former X screen name, @rickrudescalves. He changed his X screen name and protected his account last week because he was uncomfortable with the amount of attention the post generated. He asked not to be named because he's not authorized by his employer to speak with the media, but BI has confirmed his identity.

Rick does not work in politics. He has a desk job. He's on the political left and said he viewed Vance from "a place of irreverence if not outright disrespect," in part because he shares an upbringing not dissimilar to the hard-knock childhood Vance describes in "Hillbilly Elegy." The political conclusions he drew from those experiences, though, differ markedly from Vance's, he said.

The fact that so many people across the political spectrum appeared to believe his post to be true hasn't bolstered his faith in the critical-thinking skills of the electorate, Rick said — though he accepts that blame for the misapprehension starts with him. "In terms of media literacy, and those kinds of things, I guess I was already in the mud rolling around," he said.

He's mildly concerned that he's now viewed as peddling election misinformation, which, he said, was not his intent. He posted what he posted, he added, because he sees in Vance an ineffable quality he believes is best approximated with the moniker "couch-fucker."

"I have really enjoyed thinking about his team and all of the idiots associated with him having to grapple with this," Rick said. "I think by the time the AP thing came out, I was talking to one of my sisters and saying, 'Oh, yeah, Trump is already calling him a couch-fucker.'"

Rick is not the first person to post an absurd joke that ended up roiling political circles after flying over too many heads. In 2016, a Twitter user posted that they "love working at the post office in Columbus, Ohio, and ripping up absentee ballots that vote for Trump." The Gateway Pundit and Rush Limbaugh gave the post credulous coverage, eliciting a statement from the US Postal Service and, eventually, an FBI investigation.

Perhaps, Rick said, whether Vance actually had carnal knowledge of one or more couches is immaterial. Rick suggested Vance making love to a couch may best be viewed as what Werner Herzog has described as the "ecstatic truth" — in Herzog's words, "a kind of truth that is the enemy of the merely factual," encompassing falsehoods that "make some essence of the man visible."

As for his decision to include a fake citation in a post about a man having sex with a couch, Rick claims highbrow inspiration. "Not to egghead it up," he said, but he was an English major "and I do have certain literary tastes." Listing page numbers was "in the vein of" authors Jorge Luis Borges and John Fowles, who used excerpts and citations, real and invented, to lend an air of authenticity to their fiction. "It's something I've found funny my entire life," he said.

He said he was also inspired by an anecdote about former President Lyndon Johnson, who apocryphally asked a campaign manager to invent a rumor that one of Johnson's political opponents liked having sex with pigs.

"Christ, we can't get away with calling him a pig-fucker," the campaign manager responded, the journalist Hunter S. Thompson recounted in "Fear and Loathing: On the Campaign Trail '72." "Nobody's going to believe a thing like that."

"I know," Johnson replied. "But let's make the sonofabitch deny it."

So far, as the comedian John Oliver noted gleefully in a "Last Week Tonight" segment Sunday, Vance has chosen not to deny it.

A spokesperson for Vance did not respond to a request for comment.