US US Politics 2024

back in 2015, I thought that the only reason regular citizens could possibly vote for Trump was if you were a racist. But you could support him for if you were rich and selfish. or a republican congressman seeking a secure power base- or just afraid of him.

Almost ten years later I feel pretty much the same.

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Been listening to Ultra Season 2 (BTW - I give it two thumbs up), and some Heather Cox Richardson (BTW she was just interviewed by Jon Stewart). And they really help me see Trump in a historical perspective. And. viewing racism historically too.

I'm finally getting CRT. it seems like you can draw a line from everything wrong with the USA to slavery.
 
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it seems like you can draw a line from everything wrong with the USA to slavery.
Hmm. What about the so-called "Indian Wars"? I think they pre-date slavery in some cases. The settler-colonial instinct definitely seems to be alive and well in American middle-east policy.
 
Hmm. What about the so-called "Indian Wars"? I think they pre-date slavery in some cases.
Good point.
But I think it's fair to say that nothing in American History predates slavery.
Slaves were imported into the Americas as early as the 1500s.

However I just listened to a podcast on the USA's 2nd admenment, the right to bear arms amendment. and it was written in part to keep people safe from slaves. Also some of the earliest gun restrictions were made to keep guns out of the hands of black people (and Indians and catholics)

The settler-colonial instinct definitely seems to be alive and well in American middle-east policy.

yes. and in a side note Israel does not fully support Ukraine. Be sort of hypocritical of them if they were against occupying armies.
 
Every time I look at the polls and bookmakers odds Kamala Harris odds very, very slightly improve. We've now reached the point where she is favourite to win the popular vote and 50/50 vs Trump to be President, which is better odds than the Democrats have had for ages.

This would seem to me to mean that spending your time working for the Kamala Harris campaign, or donating, might be a good use of your time or money since it could be a very close election again. (As a foreign national living in another country, I likely won't be allowed to donate.)

Another Trump Presidency could be even worse this time since all the key appointees will be dumb/bad/MAGA etc. A lot of the sensible adults in the room resigned or were fired in the last Trump Presidency or wrote critical books etc... they won't be coming back.
 
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The sad thing is that I don't think it is gong to move the needle much. this election is going to be close so maybe just a 1% bump in the right place will be enough to put Harris over the top.
Although she probably needs to win by a landslide to keep the lawsuits short and sweet.

The NYT had a good article on the reactions to the DNC. Although there are some silver linings there is also a lot of crap.

But outside the arena, and outside the bubble of ride-or-die Democratic voters, some voters, particularly Republicans, said they did not even bother to watch the speech.


this doesn't surprise me. the only time I watch (parts of) a Trump speech is when the Daily show is mocking him. Really. Why bother? The only thing the guys does is lie.
 
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What may move the needle is repubs not voting at all. rump can't stop his crazy ranting to lie about actual policy. Now that RFK is supporting rump he's gonna over shadow Vance :weird: . How bad you have to be to be upsurped by lunatic RFK :ignore::rofl:

I feel bad for the SNL writers--maga is doing a better job

But seriously, apart from the truly deluded, I really expect a lot of repubs will sit this one out, making it more like 2008
 
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I feel bad for the SNL writers--maga is doing a better job
it still sticks out in my mind. When a comedian who had a news show, Samantha Bee, was asked what would she do now that Trump was out of office, with Trump in office the jokes practically write themselves , she replied, the jokes do not write themselves, I have a staff of Jewish writers who write my jokes.
 
this can't be a big deal but in a race this close even a small bump is significant.

I doubt this is going to mean much but still it's worth noting. Tim Waltz's daughter is vegetarian.

Tim Walz - “corn dog?”

Hope Walz - “I’m vegetarian.”

Tim Walz - “turkey then”

Hope Walz - “turkey is meat”

Tim Walz - “not in Minnesota”

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there has also been various reports that Ella Emhoff, Kamala’s step daughter, appears to be vegan, although I couldn’t find an official source confirming this. She has a cow tattoo and multiple sources mention her eating vegan food wearing a bag with the phrase “Vegan Diet with Mom.”​


Not that Reddit is a reliable source but ....
 
Not breaking news or maybe even important. but I found this interesting.
This article was brought to my attention via a YouTube post about it. I think I'll post the link at the bottom.

one more thing worth mentioning is its not just women who are turned off by trump supporters. Men are too. however to be fair, I've think men are a much less discerning group of daters.

It's an amusing truth that comes up with regularity: Men who love Donald Trump struggle on the dating market. This is neither surprising nor regrettable. Supporting Trump is much like refusing to bathe, blowing your nose in your hands or farting loudly on purpose. It's a repugnant habit that makes you repulsive to normal people.​




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It's an amusing truth that comes up with regularity: Men who love Donald Trump struggle on the dating market. This is neither surprising nor regrettable. Supporting Trump is much like refusing to bathe, blowing your nose in your hands or farting loudly on purpose. It's a repugnant habit that makes you repulsive to normal people.
Meh, seems too much of a generalisation, and besides reminds me of that oh-so-unfortunate "basket of deplorables" phrase.
 
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VERY GOOD ARTICLE!!!
Thanks for sharing, @Lou

To be fair, you likely would not feel good about dating a racist, a misogynist, or a traitor.
So, who would want to date a person encompassing all of those 3 lovely character traits?
I hope women keep doing this!

On top of that, it's not rocket science. Repugnican men are not exactly known for treating women well.




Also ...



Just wait until they hear that there are vegan women out there who refuse to date corpse munchers!

HEADS ARE GOING TO EXPLODE ...
 
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Meh, seems too much of a generalisation, and besides reminds me of that oh-so-unfortunate "basket of deplorables" phrase.

Do you want to suggest that Dump got elected because Hillary called out "Deplorables" as such?

I don't buy that.

Yes, Hillary did a lot of bad/wrong things, but that was not "it"... (IMO)
 
Do you want to suggest that Dump got elected because Hillary called out "Deplorables" as such?

I don't buy that.

Yes, Hillary did a lot of bad/wrong things, but that was not "it"... (IMO)
I don't think it helped, i.e. I think it did more damage than it did good. The phrase was widely criticised in the media, if I remember correctly.

And in a tight race every little counts. But no, it probably wasn't the main reason she lost.

If the Dems hope to win, they need to stop denigrating the electorate, though. This year's election is shaping up to become an even tighter contest than 2020 and 2016.
 
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