US Politics, September 2024 -- “I’m Not Going to Apologize For Posting a Joke”

It would open up a lot of "Black jobs" apparently.

fwiw

WASHINGTON, Sept 24 (Reuters) - Democratic Vice President Kamala Harris leads Republican Donald Trump 47% to 40% in the race to win the Nov. 5 U.S. presidential election, as she appeared to blunt Trump's edge on the economy and jobs, a Reuters/Ipsos poll published on Tuesday found.

Harris had a lead of six percentage points based on unrounded figures - which showed her with support from 46.61% of registered voters while Trump was backed by 40.48%, according to the three-day poll that closed on Monday. The Democrat's lead was slightly higher than her five-point advantage over Trump in a Sept 11-12 Reuters/Ipsos poll.

he latest poll had a margin of error of about four percentage points.

While national surveys including Reuters/Ipsos polls give important signals on the views of the electorate, the state-by-state results of the Electoral College determine the winner, with seven battleground states likely to be decisive.

Polls have shown Harris and Trump are neck-and-neck in those battleground states, with many results within the polls' margins of error. A recent New York Times/Siena College poll showed Trump with marginal leads in three of these states - Arizona, Georgia and North Carolina.

*raises imaginary Negroni for a toast*

https://apnews.com/article/arizona-democratic-campaign-office-gunshots-tempe-4bfcf15768b3717eb5b965d776c7ba32

if only the electoral college didn't exist. one of these days we're going to tackle that one, but until then, only that last paragraph (about the neck-and-neck battleground states) matters

xp

you don't run for president of the entire united states, just a handful of 'em

"A handful, that is!"

https://i.imgur.com/YKDH4dP.jpg

go polish your nose ring
https://thehill.com/homenews/senate/4896899-manchin-sinema-harris-filibuster/

if only the electoral college didn't exist. one of these days we're going to tackle that one

One can hope and pray, but it would require a constitutional amendment and that would require a bunch of over-privileged small states to renounce their privilege by ratifying it. Won't happen. We seem to be stuck with that particular piece of slavery era nastiness.

Manchin, who is retiring at year’s end, told CNN. “She knows the filibuster is the Holy Grail of democracy.

a wholly appropriate comment, because the Holy Grail is imaginary

A good Drew Magary column about why there's no longer any reason to read the New York Times. No paywall, so I won't bother quoting at length. Worth reading the whole thing.

Drew has a sharp left jab. Witness:

...the Times has so thoroughly isolated itself from the zeitgeist that it’s written itself right out of it. We don’t need these fartsniffers anymore, if we ever did.

Don’t let the door hit you on the way out, Manchin and Sinema

"We don’t need these fartsniffers anymore" for October Thread Title.

"We Don't Need Another Fartsniffer" set to the tune of "We Don't Need Another Hero."

We'll probably see Sinema running on the No Labels ticket in a few years

This bit of the Magary column is crucial, and it's honestly one of the factors that gives me the most hope for November, because it's emblematic of a larger mindset within the Harris campaign:

Harris is winning this election right now in large part because she has avoided legacy outlets, the Times foremost among them, altogether. Her team understands that it behooves these outlets to have a close race, which means that they’ll seize on any gaffe Harris makes if it gives them a chance to falsely equivocate her remarks to those of Trump screaming, “THEY’RE EATING THE DOGS!” to kick up a racial holy war. Team Harris has no interest in helping the Times sanewash Trump more than it already has, so they’ve decided that the only way to win the game is not to play.

For all their talk about campaigning like they're the underdogs in the race, they're really not running scared. With the exception of Israel/Gaza (which I shouldn't need to remind anyone, but I will to stave off the inevitable tidal wave of bile, ILX posters care much more about than the American electorate writ large), they're taking affirmative positions and not backtracking from them in the face of "bUt hOw will yOu pAy fOr it?" idiocy, and they're refusing to answer "Trump says [tidal wave of insane bullshit] - how do you respond?" questions, and they're ridiculing him more than they're treating him like a mortal threat... it's a real "scared money don't make money" campaign, and I think it's gonna pay off six weeks from now.

if only the electoral college didn't exist. one of these days we're going to tackle that one

One can hope and pray, but it would require a constitutional amendment

― more difficult than I look (Aimless), Tuesday, September 24, 2024 3:37 PM (forty-eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not really true fwiw, states could choose to give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, in fact a number of states have agreed to do just that if enough other states come along, something that you weirdly never hear about from national dems despite getting repeatedly victimized by the institution https://harvardpolitics.com/abolishing-the-electoral-college-might-not-be-as-hard-as-you-think/

I remember Henrik Hertzberg's involvement in the National Popular Vote Interstate Compact; he devoted several New Yorker articles to it.

Israel Deliberately Blocked Humanitarian Aid to Gaza, Two Government Bodies Concluded. Antony Blinken Rejected Them.

Blinken told Congress, “We do not currently assess that the Israeli government is prohibiting or otherwise restricting” aid, even though the U.S. Agency for International Development and others had determined that Israel had broken the law.

https://www.propublica.org/article/gaza-palestine-israel-blocked-humanitarian-aid-blinken

this was basically already known, but ProPublica with a comprehensive report on Blinken lying to Congress to prop up Israel's campaign of starvation and disease

breaking the law

Their conclusion was explosive because U.S. law requires the government to cut off weapons shipments to countries that prevent the delivery of U.S.-backed humanitarian aid.

fwiw, states could choose to give their electoral votes to the national popular vote winner, in fact a number of states have agreed to do just that if enough other states come along

it's a nice theory, but the problem there is that if any state legislature passes a law agreeing to this system, that law can be repealed by the next set of legislators. this weakness at its core subjects this jury-rigged system for deciding presidential elections to as much uncertainty from one election to the next as the present system of "whoever gets the right combination of seven swing states, wins it all".

yeah laws when passed can later be repealed that is true

here's a helpful scorecard on where Senate Democrats stand on voting to protect abortion and getting rid of the filibuster

https://talkingpointsmemo.com/which-senate-democrats-are-blocking-the-path-to-abortion-rights

Interesting Axios article relating to what I was asking about earlier (potential Senate pickups). It seems like the Democratic Senatorial Campaign Committee wants to try to knock out Ted Cruz and Rick Scott (and possibly even Marsha Blackburn).

Why isn't Osborn-Fischer mentioned here?

Consultants gotta eat, might as well con some people into setting money on fire in Texas.

I think it's good to run real campaigns wherever you can. I don't expect Blackburn to lose in Tennessee, but stoking Gloria Johnson's campaign also stokes Tennessee Democrats all over the state.

I suppose having a few semi-exciting races in TX is a way to energize Democratic voters there and hopefully build the state party, but who knows.

I'm not really sure if there are any other exciting races in TX right now (definitely none in Houston or the Gulf Coast--Thanks, Gerrymandering!).

I mean, the Beto wave in '18 was no joke, with a lot of metaphorical ships rose with that Blue tide. But all the four-year terms won then were voted on again in '22, and the two-year terms being voted on this year are pretty secure.

Harris/Waltz missing on Montana's absentee ballot

https://www.newsweek.com/montana-voting-system-shut-down-1957839

It’s happening

NEW U.S. Senate Nebraska poll from Survey USA (A+)

⬜ Dan Osborn 45% (+1)
🟥 Deb Fischer 44%

— Garrett Herrin (@GarrettHerrin) September 25, 2024

Internal poll so probably bs but … what if it’s not.

at the risk of deterring you guys from posting polls that make me feel good . . .

i think neither the world nor this thread really needs this kind of half-assed gambling shit, almost all of which is within the margin of error anyway

i promise to only post polls that are obviously wrong

bless yr heart

We can all carry on with our lives once the people have spoken.

That is what we thought four and eight and 24 years ago

Harris doing an interview tonight with MSNBC's Stephanie Ruhle and has reportedly recorded an episode of the NBA podcast All the Smoke.

Okay I do need to hear her hoops opinions

Hopefully she comes out in favor of codifying the hand check ban in the constitution.

A late add to the Nuzzi dunkin'

There were signs pic.twitter.com/IaTzSyHkbO

— Armand Domalewski (@ArmandDoma) September 24, 2024

The process of blocking her on your social media is Denuzzification

remember when NRO lost its mind a decade ago when Rick Perry started wearing glasses

I would have thought a 21 year old woman attracted to guys like Keith Olbermann and Rick Perry would only exist in the minds of the House of Cards writers.

I think that was the plot of a family guy episode

Rick Perry is dreamy in that "Every time I think of him I dream he fell into molten lava" way.

Is Nuzzi's kink the worst American Men in the World?

Trump is her Final Boss, obv