[worry]

Sorry, I mean safe solely as in not considered swing states (for 2024 at least).

[Lady Bliss]

worry, on 07 November 2024 - 02:22 PM, said:

Sorry, I mean safe solely as in not considered swing states (for 2024 at least).

Gotcha. Sorry it’s a touch point for me since I’m im stuck here till I can get somewhere that I feel safe.

[worry]

Understood. My sister and brother-in-law finally got out just a few months ago, after many years in Harlingen. Now they're up in Maine and glad of it.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Azath Vitr (D, on 07 November 2024 - 10:40 AM, said:

Quote

Philadelphia Democratic Chair Bob Brady blamed Vice President Kamala Harris' campaign for what looked like the lowest performance by a Democratic presidential candidate in the city in the last two decades and said he felt no responsibility [...]

"They never dealt with us. They didn't show us any respect. I never talked to the lady, and she's the candidate," [...]

He argued Gov. Josh Shapiro should have been Harris' vice presidential pick. He said Democrats needed a "better candidate," [...]

Spoiler

"Obama, Biden all came to say hi to the ward leaders, that means something. They never showed up," [...]
The Harris campaign paid about "half" of past campaigns for Philly's get-out-the-vote effort, he claimed.

He also complained about the campaign not including local Democrats or ward leaders in rallies or giving them VIP seating.

"Not that I got an ego but it shows the lack of respect, that we do deserve."

[...] "I'm not getting any backlash," Brady said [...] "We got our pizza. We're licking our wounds but we're still all here."

[...] "I never even met the lady."

Election 2024: Kamala Harris concession speech time; Trump plans for his presidency; Pa. senate race results, vote totals

"We got our pizza. I never even met the lady."

In retrospect, I left out some important context: they were having a pizza party.

Also, despite Philadelphia being a majority Black city, the guy is white. Imagine a cross between Rodney Dangerfield and Tony Soprano and you probably wouldn't be too far off. "That uppity Black lady didn't show me no respect".

Wonder who was paying for the pizza party... Musk or Putin? Maybe they both chipped in a bit?

Or maybe the prison-industrial complex...

Quote

Winners: Prisons. The big prison groups already have billions of dollars in federal contracts but profits will soar if Trump presses on with plans for a militarized mass deportation of undocumented migrants.

Up: Geo Group. Prison sector heavyweight [stock] rose 42.1 percent. New value: $3 billion.

[...] Losers: Wind turbine suppliers. Trump hates wind turbines almost as much as he hates sharks.

Down: Orsted. World's biggest wind farm developer that has regularly clashed with GOP officials in the U.S., fell 12.79 percent [...]

Losers: Consumers and the retailers who supply them. Trump plans to introduce tariffs of up to 60 percent on imported goods, especially from China, to be paid for by the American consumers who voted him back in.

Down: Dollar General. The popular discount store chain fell 5.1 percent.

Trump's Win Was Great News for Prison Stocks—But a Nightmare for Others

... and since "being illegal" is a crime they can be forced to do slave labor while they wait to be deported...

[HoosierDaddy]

I sometimes wonder if it is worse to be trapped in Indiana where we have more of the grifty type Rs and not the wholly batshit insane ones like Texas. Then again, our new Lt. Governor Micah Beckwith is an apple of that variety.

[Whisperzzzzzzz]

Why does Trump want to repeal the CHIPs act? How is "bring jobs amd manufacturing back to the US" NOT wildly popular and directly in the center of the Republican platform?

[Cause]

Whisperzzzzzzz, on 07 November 2024 - 04:47 PM, said:

Why does Trump want to repeal the CHIPs act? How is "bring jobs amd manufacturing back to the US" NOT wildly popular and directly in the center of the Republican platform?

It’s as simple as republicans are fiscally conservative when a democrat is in power and spend money like water when they are in power. They criticized chips as a free government handout to tech companies. They are just upset they don’t get to give the hand out.


Despite Trump single handedly rasing the deficit more than any president in history by a wide margin he gets a pass.

This post has been edited by Cause: 07 November 2024 - 06:26 PM

[Lady Bliss]

OK mock me for being a socialist but I guess that’s what I am. IMO nobody needs to earn more than 500k a year, and corporations and billionaires need to be taxed the fuck out of to set things straight. Nobody needs a 12+ million dollar mansion as Warren Buffet has proven. It is just gross while others are living in poverty. Unfortunately Trump’s reelection has profited these billionaires ridiculously per the news and will continue to profit the wealthy even though he talks about helping the working class. It’s sad that they thought otherwise.

[amphibian]

I think there's real value in enforcing existing tax code by boosting the IRS and figuring out a way to stop the dodge of low salary, high stock compensation/borrowing against the stock etc that the mega mega rich are doing.

I also don't think Walz was the problem. The Democrat media/comms arm isn't as effective in the morass that is news/social media as the Republican media/comms and that's a huge problem with low information voters.

Somehow Trump gets to be the one that low information voters pin whatever weird and bigoted hopes on while Biden and Harris get stuck with being expected to be superhuman and hyper competent.

My hot take is that discussing polling extensively has a net voter suppression effect because people start to believe that's what will happen, don't vote, and then act surprised at the outcomes.

My less hot take is that the benefits the Biden presidency delivered (support to striking workers, getting rid of some student loans, pushing up black and brown low income wages, pulling out of Afghanistan etc) aren't seen as benefits to the single income family or the white family.

My medium take is that I think Biden would have won if he hadn't been taken out. Trump got less votes than in 2020 and Harris underperformed Biden by 13 million votes.

[Lady Bliss]

On a lighter note I’ve been binge watching old British shows and this one struck me as relevant to what people perceive the future to be https://youtu.be/qko...j7oRA4pTYwZgivU

[Tsundoku]

An excellent summation:

Turns Out, It Was Cancer After All

https://www.stoneket...-after-all.html

Last year I spent three months waiting to see if I had cancer or not.

The doctors were all pretty sure I had it. And it was going to be the kind that I probably wouldn't survive. Then, they were finally able to complete a test and I woke up from the procedure and ... didn't have cancer. Just totally didn't have it. You can go, the doctor said. We don't need to see you again for ten years.

It took me a week to even process the relief. I'm not sure I still have.

As I noted on Threads, much of yesterday felt a lot like that three months.

I was hoping for a similar outcome.

Hoping I'd wake up and all would be well.



But...



Well, now we know who's who.

Now we know who our real friends and allies are. And who isn't.

I was going to ask: So, what was it this time?

What's the excuse this time?

Was it the price of eggs?

Cost of gas at the pump?

Wait, wait, she didn't have any ground game in swing states wah wah wah? Hated her laugh?

No, it's Gaza? Yeah, it's Gaza isn't it?

What's the excuse this time?

But, you know what? It turns out I honestly don't care. I mean, when it's terminal cancer, do you really care how you caught it?

I don't care what the excuse is this time around and ultimately, it doesn't matter anyway. Every single thing lefties claim they care about? In the end, none of it mattered enough.

And now, we've lost it all.



Donald Trump will decide our fate.



What? What's that?

Oh, we'll fight will we? It's not over! We...

Yeah, save it.

Just fucking save it, I'm not interested. The cancer is too far along.

You personally? Sure, you might have cared enough, but it turns out a lot of those we thought were on our side, those we thought would stand up for their own rights, just ... didn't. Not only didn't, but they appear to have thrown their lot in with Trump and are willing to let Elon Musk, Laura Loomer, RFK Jr, and the local Preacher Man run their lives. A lot of those women I saw in line yesterday? Apparently they did vote away their own rights.

No, no, I'm not blaming women. I blame Americans, all of us. That's who I blame.

I'm saying everyone knew what the stakes were, there was a record turnout and somehow 20 million less Americans voted this time and so we decided to reelect a twice impeached serial rapist currently out on bail for more than twenty felony convictions.

Why? I don't know. The reason doesn't much matter now anyway, does it?

You again? What now? Trump is going to what now?

LOL. No. Trump isn't going to jail. You can forget that pipe dream. Those who prosecuted Trump? Odds are, they'll be the ones going to prison.

Merrick Garland? You tell me he had to go slow, etc. Well, he went slow and I'm not a lawyer but I goddamn well know politics and I fucking told you so for whatever that's worth. Merrick Garland might have been right, but he still failed us worse and just as deliberately than any Benedict Arnold. Slow. Fuck me.

Oh, and all those MAGA insurrectionists Garland did lock up?

They're free on Jan 20, 2025. With a full pardon. Because if we didn't lock up the guy who led the insurrection, well, then nothing else matters and everything Garland actually accomplished is totally moot, erased, never happened, the guy might as well have never existed. He's a nebbish, history won't even remember his name.

And again, I did tell you so.

I told you so, but I was just pissing into the wind.



You already knew.



You knew.

I have to laugh at those this morning saying "well, at least we passed abortion protection in..." Oh stop. That's the one legitimately funny bit today. Oh, you passed abortion protection and you're gonna put it in your state Constitution? Hardee har har. Yeah. Trump and these pinched faced religious nuts are going to enact a national abortion ban, yes they are, and whatever your silly little state constitution says means exactly fuck all. What are you gonna do? Appeal it to the Supreme Court? LOL. But hey, take what joy you can this morning, I guess. Laugh it up. You might not get a lot of chances for humor in the future.

We're going to see measles, polio, mumps, and the flu ravage our population again. Preventable diseases that were conquered decades ago are going to kill, blind, sterilize, and main our kids again. Me? I'm getting old, I probably won't survive whatever mismanaged pandemic comes next, unless horse dewormer up your ass actually does work this time.

They're going to drill and mine our national parks and frack our water.

They're going to tear down the wind turbines and solar panels and cook the planet.

They're going to turn the military loose on us and damn posse comitatus. The law and Constitution only matter when you elect people who respect it.
They're going to ban same sex marriage and lock up LGBTQ people as insane, just like the Germans did back in the 1930s, or worse.

They'll round and deport 20 million people and it's going to leave such a massive hole in our economy that we might never recover, but Elon says you'll be fine after a couple of years of hardship. My dear old mom used to say: you can get used to hanging if you hang long enough. We're about to find out just how true that is.

Healthcare? Social Security? Gone. Hope you got plenty of savings to support you in your old age. What's that? Oh. Well, maybe you can sell a kidney then.

They're going to impose tariffs, give tax breaks to billionaires, give Trump direct control of the Fed, and Elon control of everything else, and utterly destroy the economy. The billionaires won't suffer, but you damn sure are going to.

They're going to put guns in every school right next to mandatory Jesus.

However bad you think it's going to be, it'll be worse.



But, you knew that.



Oh sure, eventually, a decade or so down the road, after the recession and the wars and the riots and the violence, just like those who voted for the Third Reich, those who voted for Trump are gonna get screwed by the very rapist they helped elect.

And, you know, I just don't care about that either.

Sure, they'll have it coming, but if I'm still around to witness their comeuppance (an unlikely event to be sure, but maybe I'll get lucky. If you can call living in that world luck) I'll feel neither joy at their misery nor sympathy for their suffering. Fuck 'em.

See, we're all going to get screwed right alongside them, the undeserving and the guilty alike, The Good and the bad Germans both.

Not just us, but all our friends too.

The war in Ukraine is over, Putin won last night. NATO and Europe are next.

The war in Gaza isn't over and won't be for a while, but the outcome is inevitable now. But hey, at least you have your principles, right?

Taiwan? South Korea? Oh well. So sorry. Sucks to be you.

If it's any consolation, it's gonna suck to be us too.



But again, you knew this.

I'm not telling you anything you didn't already know.

We all knew, but for a lot of lefties yesterday, well... here we are.

Yeah, yeah, I know, I know. You're mad at me now for saying so.

Be mad. It'll keep you warm when the power goes out.

I wish you were mad enough yesterday to show up.

And so here we are.

Trump isn't just going to be president again. He's going to be quite literally a dictator because there is absolutely nothing to hold him back this time. We handed him the White House, the Court, the Legislature, and total immunity. It's not just this latest election, it's all the ones that came before too.

You need to face what that means.

He's going to take revenge on us.

He's going to do what he said he would do.

He's going to destroy everything you love.

You knew that, and it wasn't enough. You're going to have to face it.

Trump is going to burn down the world and maybe that's what it'll finally take.

That's what the far left progressives shouted at me back in 2016: burn it all down. Burn it all down.

Burn it all down. Burning it all down isn't the moral high ground, it's just arson and people die in a fire, but again here we are and careful what you wish for. Because now it is all going to burn and I hope those who started this fire get everything they've got coming to them. And who knows, maybe they're right. Maybe when we're squatting in the ruins, covered ash, maybe then it'll be enough to get you to show the fuck up. Or not.

What should you do? What should any of us do?

I don't know.

I don't know. I'm out of ideas.

I'm old. I'm tired. I'm worn out from this fight. More, I'm worn out from sounding the alarm and watching it fall on deaf ears.

What to do?

Flee maybe. Get out while you can, if there's some place that'll take people who didn't give enough of a fuck about their own fate to change it when they had the chance. Hopefully Europe won't turn away desperate Americans fleeing fascism like we did to the Jews fleeing Germany back in the 1930's. But, hey, if they do, well, you can't really blame them can you?

But, again, again, and again, you knew all this.

Yes, you did. And now? Grim? Depressing? Panic attack? You knew it would come to this if you didn't show up. And it wasn't enough. Why? Why wasn't it enough? What's the excuse this time? Like I said above, I don't know and I don't care, but I'm sure we're going to hear all about it anyway and why those of us who actually did care, who sounded the alarm claxon over and over, and who actually did show up are somehow to blame.

See you in the camps.

I'll be the guy drinking prison wine with Hillary.

[Mentalist]

How does NC have a DEM governor winning with 3 million votes, and Harris losing with 2.7?

Considering that total turnout for Prez votes was higher (5.5 mil v 5.2 mil for governor race)

[Lady Bliss]

I know the next few years will suck but I don’t see this as the end. The human race has risen from crap like this before. My grandparents and great grandparents survived WW1, WW2, and the Great Depression, and we rose up and survived. I have no doubt from the things that I have read that the environment can be stabilized even though it may not look the same as 100 years ago. Our kids are even smarter than we are and they will finish our work. I believe that humans want to survive.

Last ditch scenario for me is sitting in a lawn chair on the west coast, high as a kite and drinking tequila while North Korea nukes me, but I believe our kids will move on.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Mentalist, on 07 November 2024 - 08:23 PM, said:

How does NC have a DEM governor winning with 3 million votes, and Harris losing with 2.7?

Considering that total turnout for Prez votes was higher (5.5 mil v 5.2 mil for governor race)

Because the Republican candidate called himself a Black Nazi and said he likes transgender porn and thinks slavery was good. Said he'd like a few slaves himself. And loves Hitler.

So... basically because he said he likes transgender porn.

Pleasant-seeming elderly guy on the train back into Philadelphia today was having a friendly chat with the conductor... then started ranting about immigrants. "I'm an educated man," he said. "I got through the 10th grade. [There are 12 grades in American elementary school.] I'm an FBA. Foundational. Black. American. My ancestors built this country for free. Where's my cut? I want some of that sweet deal [he thinks the immigrants are getting]. Give me some of that money."

A little later, a young guy who looked like a stereotypical jock was talking to someone about the election. Basically said he went to vote and the line was very long so he decided "I'm out". Not athletic enough to stand in line I guess... I wondered to myself: Am I in hell?

Quote

From 'heartbroken' to 'elated': Philly reacts to the election

Taz, 22, [...] said that he voted but [...] wrote in his own name instead [...] "There's certain aspects of a resident that you have to have in order to lead a country. She had the smarts, she had all of it. But what she didn't have — she was lacking masculinity,"

Spoiler

Taz said, going on to argue that [...] she would not be able to react decisively in a worst-case scenario such as a nuclear attack.

Taz also cited the potential for other countries to view Harris as weak because she was a woman. [...]

Taz said he was very worried, though, about a Trump presidency. "He just don't care about nobody but himself, if you really think about it. He's preparing us for the end of the world. For the lower class, he's taking away all of our basic rights. All the women's basic rights."

[...] Anthony Renzulli operates his cigar lounge [...] in South Philly [...] "We're elated."

"Our economy's in trouble. There [are] wars in the world which I don't think would be happening, and I think Trump's gonna put everything back in order," Renzulli said.

He also believes that American politics "took God and morality out of the country" in recent years.

"I think he's the perfect person to get everybody united,"

From 'heartbroken' to 'elated': Philly reacts to the election

Worst turnout in Philadelphia in 20 years. Some of that probably is because she's a woman, but still... worse even than for Hillary Clinton. In a majority Black city.

Of course, some Black people believed the ridiculous lie about Harris being an Indian woman who's only pretending to be Black. Janet Jackson among others.

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 08 November 2024 - 02:04 AM

[Briar King]

And you also had a senate flip up there today confirmed to.

[Cause]

In a more narrow bandwidth I am fascinated that every state that had it on the ballot enshrined abortion protections into their state constitutions. Except one, Florida.

So my first question is will the fact that several states that had state abortion restrictions had them overturned get the message across that the majority of America want them or will they ignore the people.

Now as to Florida, the ballot initiate failed having only successfully gotten 57% of the vote. The threshold was 60. I’m torn since I have regularly said credit should have required more that 50% plus 1 vote to be carried. Too important a decision to be decided by a ballot that if was held again the week after might switch based just on statistical chance. However requiring 60% to pass seems almost designed to stop the people from passing legislation based on their direct choice. Also I’m not clear if it’s always been 60%?

I think legalization of weed also failed having only gotten a similar 57% or so on the ballot.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

Time and again, voters, very often women themselves, told me that they just didn't think that "America is ready for a female president". People said they couldn't "see her in the chair" and asked if I "really thought a woman could run the country". One person memorably told me that she couldn't vote for Harris because "you don't see women building skyscrapers". Sometimes, these people would be persuaded, but more often than not it was a red line. Many conversations would start with positive discussions on policy and then end on Harris and her gender.

[...] The atrocities being committed by Israel in Gaza only came up six times in more than 1,000 calls. [...]

Spoiler

Others, very often of Latino origin, would tell me that she was soft on law and order. Quite remarkably, the Trump campaign successfully branded Harris as both a communist – lax on law and order – and simultaneously too tough on crime. To many, she was both an ineffective vice-president and one who had her hands all over the Biden administration. Voters held these facts in their heads at once – and would not be persuaded otherwise.

[...] Often, they would also tell me that everyone they knew was doing badly, even if they were just fine themselves. [...] Democrats tried to tell the story of average wages being higher and unemployment being at an historic low, but people just seemed to believe Trump more often than they believed Harris and Tim Walz

I spent hours trying to persuade US voters to choose Harris not Trump. I know why she lost | Oliver Hall | The Guardian

Oh ffs...

Could be that many people have been complaining about their increased costs but not boasting about their increased income, contributing to common misperceptions that superficially appear to support Trump's "Truths".

[amphibian]

My take on the she's not ready to lead a country is that many people are refusing to tell pollsters and reporters the truth about why this woman wasn't ready - it's because she's black and big groups of the country do not want a black woman telling them what to do.

Never mind that this is not a president's role - it's what they think and mostly won't say to outsiders.

The strange thing about this country is that there's so many different things that are so odd when we look at them, yet when one digs down into the "why", the answers are almost always incorporating racism.

Why does Project 2025/right wing GOP want to get rid of the Education Department? School choice - which when dug into exists as it does because of racism.

This post has been edited by amphibian: 11 November 2024 - 04:37 PM

[HoosierDaddy]

I somewhat agree with the racist part. But, I think there is also a large part of people who either feel shame about voting for Trump because they know they are selfish, and others who are afraid of the consequences that comes from people knowing they voted for Trump.

But, it is true that the only person to beat the fucktard was another old as hell white guy.

Good mix there, IMHO.

[Azath Vitr (D'ivers]

Quote

Musk [...] will be tasked[...] with cutting $2 trillion of supposed government waste and fraud, an idea that's been personally endorsed by Trump in public. [...] a program of pitiless austerity for the poor and middle class, one that Musk has openly and repeatedly admitted will plunge Americans into "hardship" and a "severe" economic downturn, even as the administration lavishes the ultrarich with government handouts.

Trump Is Planning a Presidency of, by, and for the Rich

Musk says that, as part of the Trump administration, he's going to balance the budget (even after accounting for more corporate tax cuts) immediately by introducing extreme austerity and defunding regulatory agencies. He also plans to prevent AI from being regulated and intends to crash global markets.

By replacing skilled workers with AI and crashing global markets, the would-be oligarchs may seek to destroy the economic power of the middle and upper-middle class, as well as their ultrawealthy rivals. (Regulatory agencies will still have a few uses: to destroy their business rivals and political opponents.)

Most people might still be gainfully employed training and maintaining Tesla-bots---for a short time. (Or acting as transhuman guinea pigs for aspiring cyborgs, immortals, and fanged noumena.)

I'm no longer optimistic about the societal impacts of AI, at least in the intermediate term.

Dystopia ho.

(Ho ho ho, here comes Santa Trump... with a blizzard of bloated titanic mutating(/metastasizing) buzzards and drones... and (other) avalanching floods)

Elon Musk agrees: Trump's economic plans will lead to 'hardship' and cause markets to 'tumble' | The Independent

This post has been edited by Azath Vitr (D'ivers: 11 November 2024 - 05:01 PM