U.S. Politics, November 2024: GARBAGE DAY!!

to me I feel like

"call Trump voters stupid and hateful as a means of venting"

is too often conflated here with

"call Trump voters stupid and hateful and abdicate responsibility entirety for the Democratic party and offer zero solutions going forward"

which...no. I'm upset now, let me be, it won't be forever, but every post I see from friends who seek to lose the most who are terrified right now isn't putting me in a very rational zone at the moment. the rational side will come back, it always does.

....

....

sandimashighschoolfootballrules

otm

xpost Alfred that article makes me think maybe 2020 was less a repudiation of Trump and more people just reacting to the temporarily tanked COVID economy after all :/

i mean we knew that was a factor and that it contributed to the win but there goes my image of PEOPLE SHOWING UP EN MASSE READY TO OPPOSE TRUMP as the narrative.

Our people made fun of Trump at McDonald's and riding the garbage truck and visiting a halal stand. I didn't -- I stopped doing it after 2016 because symbolism matters.

Guess what? It worked for him.

One thing that struck me in a big-picture way is that of the 10 presidential elections I've been able to vote in, the person I voted for won 5 of them. I rarely loved the person I voted for, but still, they won. So as doomy as it can feel in terms of where the country is and how we turn it in a better direction, my actual experience in my voting lifetime is not that the bad/worse guys always win.

That said, 2028 will be the 11th one I vote in, and I'd rather that balance is 6-5 rather than 5-6.

you people and your sports analogies ;)

WAR for Dems looking shaky

OBP is ok tho

I certainly don't begrudge anyone being angry at the voters right now, considering how openly hateful Trump is and always was.

My parents moved to Portugal when I was four but they were both German and so of course were my grandparents. They all passed long before I could have That Conversation with any of them, but certainly none of them offered active resistance to the nazis.

So I've been kind of trained from birth to know that the most repugnant evil comes supported by ordinary people. That's a very cliché thing to say, but I'm always struck by how many haven't internalised it, and I think partially having those memories of ordinary ppl in my life who were around for and complicit in unspeakable evil has helped me keep it in mind.

If I have a point here it's that I don't think Americans in 2024 are particularly Evil in an exceptional way, it's just that ppl in general will go down some horrible paths once the overton window shifts enough to do so.

srs question, are there even enough never Trumper or "I don't vote purely party line" Rs in the House to even block some of the insane shit if it winds up like 221-214? that's like 4 defectors needed every time I guess.

Raymond, some insight here: https://www.lawyersgunsmoneyblog.com/2024/11/eight-million-missing-democratic-voters

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, 7 November 2024 bookmarkflaglink

People vote for things...

Very much include myself in that. In the UK in 4-5 years there'll be an election which I won't vote for even if there are nakedly racist alternatives, because the other side are probably going to offer nothing or a lighter version.

Whereas 20 years ago I would consider voting a hard won right. Now I really don't see the point in exercising it.

Which is a bit different from what that blog seems to be describing. Something to focus minds.

x-post to Daniel - Convo for another time but I did get to have that conversation with my Grandmother and it was actually p fascinating though I wish I'd been able to have it with my Opa too but he died when I was so I wasn't really thinking along those lines yet.

(should have said "when I was 8")

So fucking glad I was working remote yesterday, as apparently our one Trump loving co-worker brought in fucking Trump cookies yesterday.

glad for you too, I would have snapped in that situation

Yeah, I would have lost my fucking mind yesterday to be confronted by that first thing in the morning.

srs question, are there even enough never Trumper or "I don't vote purely party line" Rs in the House to even block some of the insane shit if it winds up like 221-214? that's like 4 defectors needed every time I guess.

― Kurt Dandruff (Neanderthal), Thursday, November 7, 2024 11:12 AM (twenty-one minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

hopefully enough to stop issues that would be political suicide for them (federal abortion ban, aca repeal) but i’m not super hopeful

the abortion ban, of course l, depends if mcconnell keeps his promise to keep the filibuster (have my doubts)

So fucking glad I was working remote yesterday, as apparently our one Trump loving co-worker brought in fucking Trump cookies yesterday.

― Maxmillion D. Boosted (jon /via/ chi 2.0), Thursday, November 7, 2024 11:29 AM (seven minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

omg

I think most of the Never Trumpers are gone from the House .

that's my worry I mean, a lot of the resistance left

Our people made fun of Trump at McDonald's and riding the garbage truck and visiting a halal stand. I didn't -- I stopped doing it after 2016 because symbolism matters.

Guess what? It worked for him.

― the talented mr pimply (Alfred, Lord Sotosyn), Thursday, November 7, 2024 10:47 AM (forty-six minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

I'm trying to think of Democratic versions of these performative hardee-har Trump photo-ops. All I can come up with are Fetterman up on the roof with his Israeli flag and Nanci Pelosi ripping up Trump's speech.

https://open.substack.com/pub/taylorlorenz/p/why-democrats-wont-build-their-own?r=2ck8a&utm_medium=ios

Why Democrats haven’t or won’t “build “ their own Joe Rogan

I offered condolences to an American coworker earlier and the fucking finance director was like for what it was a great result! Listen you little south african shrimp I wasn't talking to you but even if I was shut the fuck up. I didn't actually say that but turned around, gave him the dirtiest look I could and put my hand out to as if to say shut up. Of course because that's not my usual style I've felt slightly ever since but fuck him.

If I have a point here it's that I don't think Americans in 2024 are particularly Evil in an exceptional way, it's just that ppl in general will go down some horrible paths once the overton window shifts enough to do so.

When this old world starts getting me down
And people are just too much for me to face
I climb way up to the top of the stairs
And push John Fetterman right clean off the roof

just so nobody takes this as centrist Democratic party defending...

...we did this same debate in 2016

herein lies the problem imo. the democratic party, and its dyed in the wool adherents, think that one day they can win this argument. maybe even with facts and logic to boot

jordan otm itt. except that thing about the rappers no one has heard of I think that was a bit overboard

Alfred, thank you.

*blinks, turns around, smiles, smile falters*

EIGHT MILLIONS DEMOCRATS DIDN’T SHOW UP?!?

Speaking as someone who depends on it for a living and for... you know, life... I'm pretty sure the ACA has actually been a giant boon to insurance companies, so I'm hoping they'll put together the necessary package of bribes and flattery to keep it in place, with just a change of name. ("Trumpcare — the greatest thing ever!")

I think most of the Never Trumpers are gone from the House .

― curmudgeon, Thursday, November 7, 2024 11:38 AM (eight minutes ago) bookmarkflaglink

not talking about them, talking about the republican reps in blue states and swing districts who had to fight for their lives this year, even during a “red wave”

xpost or Trunkcare, where they fill up the back of unmarked vehicles with a litany of pills, and you just grab what you need, no prescription required

specifically thinking (locally) of mike lawler, who represents a trumpy, but socially liberal nyc suburb and promised in his ads that he wouldn’t sell out abortion rights

The thing I keep thinking about is that if Donald Trump just comes into office and does very little, takes credit for the booming market, lets the fed continue to cut rates, etc., he'll be hailed as a hero without having to wreck the entire country. I have little confidence that he has the restraint to do this, but it would be the easiest path of least resistance and people would love him for it.

he is going to coast and let people like rfk and stephen miller run the show, which is probably worse than if he were to be heavily involved

maybe someone can tell him on 1/21/25 that it's actually 1/19/29 and he might fall for it

xp

yeah, letting those ghouls have any measure of power is not going to lead anywhere good

xp - that's my fear Neando, he only wanted this to squash his potential trials, he really won't give a fuck and will let them do the work and he'll only pop in to take credit

I think it will be like Reagan’s 2nd term where he didn’t really do much because of laziness and senility and there will eventually be hearings about something corrupt and he will ramble and say he doesn’t remember.

But it won’t be about one of the many real atrocities his administration committed like letting people die of AIDS, dismantling crucial anti-poverty programs, decimating the power of organized labor, and incarcerating black people at astronomical rates

Trump would love credit for those things

God what if JD Vance might be the voice of reason behind the scenes— “hey let’s not let Elon wreck the economy and RFK give everyone polio”

Someone hijack Biden's teleprompter

Btw...

Where the House stands now.

Republicans are projected to win or (to my eye based on expected outstanding ballots) are currently favored to win 218 seats vs. 215 for Democrats.

CA-41 and CA-45 are big question marks. Perhaps slight advantage for Rs in the latter.

Still fluid. pic.twitter.com/DP3FGgw1tg

— Adam Carlson (@admcrlsn) November 7, 2024

Homan also said anyone in the United States illegally could be kicked out. He said he would restart workplace enforcement to find people working illegally in the United States and deport them. The Biden administration ended the raids, which Homan said made it easier for employers to hire unauthorized workers, including children.

Homan and Miller were key architects of the “zero tolerance” policy that separated thousands of children from their parents in the first Trump administration

Trump is expected to move quickly to rescind Biden administration programs that have relied on executive authority to dramatically expand opportunities for migrants to live and work temporarily in the United States. More than 500,000 migrants from Cuba, Haiti, Nicaragua and Venezuela have been allowed to enter the country lawfully under Biden, and many will be at risk of losing their legal status if Trump revokes their protections.

https://www.washingtonpost.com/immigration/2024/11/06/trump-immigration-policies/

Oh for the days of more limited Presidential power

Is he in?

*On

He was. It was performative nonsense about peaceful transition

crazy that Dems could make gains in the house