US Politics, July 2024 - "Will you just drop out, man?"

fake news the convention is sold out but some people wore blue suits that look like seats

― rick beato meato manifesto (Neanderthal)

oh god! remember when trump tried to claim that he had the biggest turnout for his inaugaration ever, and it was a blatant, bald-faced lie, and everybody knew it, and he kept saying it? everything old is... older. i mean. eight fucking years older.

He also had someone take a sharpie to a hurricane map to cover up his fuck up

In line with politics as wrestling, is there any juice behind Vance as a plotting traitor storyline?

Well, Vance got his senate seat through Thiel's support, so if he's a traitor it's not in a way that's going to help us / the country.

Mark Cuban suggested this:

Part 1
Here is a contrary opinion on the emergence of Silicon Valley support for former President Trump. Which like all my opinions on here, probably won’t be popular.

It’s a bitcoin play.

Not because the former President is a far stronger proponent of crypto. That’s nice.…

— Mark Cuban (@mcuban) July 17, 2024

If I was Whitmer or Newsom I wouldn't want to run now. They haven't had nearly enough time to create an impression of themselves nationally, and interviews on Sunday morning talk shows don't count. They need to spend the next four years shining a spotlight on themselves, no matter who's president. And sadly, if they can set themselves up as forces of resistance to Republican evil, it'll be very helpful for brand-building.

In line with politics as wrestling, is there any juice behind Vance as a plotting traitor storyline?

― Philip Nunez

nah that angle would be a flop in wrestling. like eazy says he'd struggle to sell a face turn, even if he did decide to suplex trump through a table on the inauguration. also, he couldn't do a face turn alone - he'd have to have allies, and at this point, you know... the last time i saw someone pull a stunt like that was, uh. what was that lady's name? her gay husband was a prominent republican and then she was like "lol just trolling" and started a liberal site. huffington! that's where huffpo came from, right? i mean that was pretty successful, i think. but it was the lady who ran the site. i don't know what happened to her gay husband, what happened to him.

I think part of the problem is that the internecine fights within the party keep them from choosing one person.

Also, I shall repeat this every time he is mentioned and I notice it, but Gavin Newsom is an evil sonofabitch with the charisma of a Gordon Gekko, and his ilk is repellent to most people who don't make a lot of money and/or aren't from California. Why he appeals to anyone is beyond my comprehension— he's like a sentient wad of cash covered in grease and cocaine additives

To me (observing as a Canadian) one of the biggest indicators of the Democrats’ addiction to losing is the fact they didn’t spend every second after winning the last election just grooming a superstar for the 2024 one

― It was on a accident (hardcore dilettante)

doing everything they can to avoid being accused of grooming lol

but yeah they not only have put no effort into developing their talent, they're like openly hostile to younger people. like there's _no_ sense of long-term strategy at all. it's something i think of as... boomers don't seem to have spent a lot of time planning for the existence of the world after their deaths. like i never got a sense that they wanted a better future for their children in any _meaningful_ sense. and i guess it kind of makes sense... growing up in the cold war, a lot of people got the idea that the world was going to end, you know, nuclear death or whatever, that they were the last generation. and now it's, i guess, the climate apocalypse. i mean i'm not immune. having kids makes a difference, of course, and i've never been able to have kids, but the idea of leaving a better world for future generations just seems so... i mean, fucking ludicrous.

Yet apparently, according to CNN’s blaring red white and blue RNC coverage, conservatives are excited by tonight’s speakers: Newt Gingrich, back from the dead! Matt Gaetz, forehead bigger than ever! Kimberly Guilfoyle, is there anyone who wants to hear from her?
Greg fucking Abbott. It’s not like the GOP is some storehouse of charisma.

I was legit trying to remember the other day if Gingrich had died at some point. I guess we'll see, huh.

yeah i don't know any of these mooted replacements for biden. newsom's big advantage over whitmer and harris is that he's a white dude. people who belong to "marked" groups in any way are held to _much higher standards_ than someone like newsom, and they'd have more challenges in getting elected, particularly when there's kind of a sense that _anybody_ but biden in 2024 is gonna be thrown under the bus if they lose. and maybe even if they _don't_ lose.

and yeah people liking newsom is... there's a lot about california politics that confuses me. my ex-girlfriend is a californian at heart, and i feel like a lot of californians... have this kind of distorted view of how people outside of california view californians. california's a big, important state. which, paradoxically, can be kind of a liability in terms of national candidates. i mean i didn't trust jerry brown either, though mostly that was because there was a great punk song about him. point is: gavin newsom is... i don't know much about him but in terms of _vibes_ i find him pretty repulsive.

Hard to breed youngish superstars when they're either appealing to the donor class but repellent lizard people (Newsom, Pete Butts) or objectionable to the donor class (AOC, anyone vaguely similar to AOC's political profile).

Also the aged and infirm of the party don't want to give up their death grip on power. There was no grooming a 2024 option because Biden had no intention of not running.

biden has covid?

That won't breed conspiracy theories!

There’s a lot of Covid in DC right now (as I found to my cost on July 4th).

PBS reporting that Arizona RNC delegates are putting bandages on their ears... barf, barf, a thousand times barf

He's gonna leave that bandage on for four months

i'm hoping for a dramatic ear reveal on the RNC stage

He never had an ear

If Trump wins I think the recriminations among Democrats will be the worst I've ever seen, because it seems like of the three options

Biden runs
Harris runs
Somebody other than Biden or Harris runs

There are a LOT of people, maybe even more than half, who think one of those options might work and not only that the other two have an essentially 0% chance of success, but that everybody knows and agrees they have a 0% chance of success, and so if the party chooses one of those options, it's because they are actually trying to lose or at least OK with losing, and how do you keep supporting a party if they're not trying to win?

I guess by the way I phrase this it's clear that I think each of those three options gives the Democrats a chance of winning that's bigger than 0% and less than 50%, and I don't know how to rank them in terms of probability of success, and I also don't think elected Democrats or donors or ordinary voters know how to rank them. I think it's just unknown and unknowable and whatever they do I hope it works. And I am pretty sure that Democrats very badly want to win this election, because, like me, they believe that the costs of losing will be long-lasting, hard to fix, maybe in some cases unfixable.

In the UK, you're only allowed to campaign six months prior to the election? Jeez I wish we had that here

excuse, six WEEKS!

The good news is that if Trump wins we have the possibility of Biden '28

now we're talking

xp I agree, Hunter's got what it takes

RFK Jr. used to be a junky, they can form a unity ticket

Would be funny if Pelosi herself insisted on running.

Pelosi is one of the only people in the game I actually would be willing to say "maybe they should do whatever she thinks best," but who knows, maybe she just had good PR and that's why I think she knows what she's doing

I would rather vote for Pelosi tbrr

If I have to vote for someone of that generation, might as well be the most effective one who still seems to be firing on all cylinders

biden has covid?

― c u (crüt), Wednesday, July 17, 2024 5:08 PM (forty-three minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

and i guess some of these rich assholes have it now, too

🟡 SCOOP: Joe Biden met in Las Vegas with Jeffrey Katzenberg who conveyed a warning: The president’s donors’ patience is wearing thin, and their cash soon will, too.https://t.co/cutzVLfkD2

— Semafor (@semafor) July 17, 2024

i'm hoping for a dramatic ear reveal on the RNC stage

― c u (crüt)

it'll be yukon eric's ear

because politics is wrestling

maybe she just had good PR and that's why I think she knows what she's doing

No, she's actually kind of a political genius and the ultimate whip-cracker

yeah all her incredible political achievements like uh accumulating a nine figure fortune while in office

Pelosi can eat shit and die

tbf she has also been very effective at placing corporate centrists in safe blue seats

truly one of the key figures of the even when we win we lose democrats

Can she, though? She might be like “mmm, what wonderful life-sustaining shit, om nom nom”

also it should be said as far as the presidential candidate fantasies itt she is just the absolute portrait of an out of touch rich lady

are they going to kill Biden off

hell yeah lets roll

Covid has joined the k hive

Machiavellian Katzenberg bringing the Rona

I'm sick

— Joe Biden (@JoeBiden) July 17, 2024

sick

COVID at the age is not good, so will refrain from jokes. Yet another what-does-this-mean? twist. (No campaigning in the immediate future, obviously.)

the = that

lol

fuck imagine the CHUDs if Trump survived peak COVID and Joe dies from it four years later

https://substack.com/@kenklippenstein/note/c-62393216?utm_medium=ios