2024 US Presidential Election

[Fake Messiah]

So what is MAGA's spin on this? Why are 23 Nobel Prize winning Economists wrong and they’re right?

23 Nobel Prize-winning economists call Harris’ economic plan ‘vastly superior’ to Trump’s

“While each of us has different views on the particulars of various economic policies, we believe that, overall, Harris’ economic agenda will improve our nation’s health, investment, sustainability, resilience, employment opportunities, and fairness and be vastly superior to the counterproductive economic agenda of Donald Trump,” the economists write in the letter obtained by CNN.

https://edition.cnn.com/2024/10/23/polit...index.html

[AFTT47]

And it's hard to see how anyone could replace Trump in his abilities that he can say and do whatever he wants without any repercussions. Even Pence can’t get away with it.

There's another long list of counterexamples to address this, too. Vance, Greene, Speaker Johnson, and so on.

Add me to the long list of us experiencing anxiety over the possibility of Trump winning and even the possibility of MAGA persisting if he loses.

I'm with Fake Messiah though in that I have a hard time seeing anyone replacing Trump.

I always think of Trump as an evil Obi Wan Kenobi at Mos Eisley in the the original Star Wars movie in 1977. I assume almost everyone knows the scene:

Kenobi: You don't need to see his identification.

Storm Trooper (can't you see him wearing a MAGA hat?): We don't need to see his identification.

You know the rest. An astounded Luke doesn't understand what just happened and Kenobi explains, "The Force can have a strong effect on the weak-minded.

Trump supporters are unquestionably weak-minded. But they are not so gullible that anybody can manipulate them the way Trump does. We've seen others who had this kind of power. Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, cult leaders like David Koresh. Thankfully, it is very rare.

I think we'll be okay if Trump loses but we are fucked if he wins.

[Fake Messiah]

I meant Vance, not Pence 😳

[Thumpalumpacus]

There's another long list of counterexamples to address this, too. Vance, Greene, Speaker Johnson, and so on.

Add me to the long list of us experiencing anxiety over the possibility of Trump winning and even the possibility of MAGA persisting if he loses.

I'm with Fake Messiah though in that I have a hard time seeing anyone replacing Trump.

I always think of Trump as an evil Obi Wan Kenobi at Mos Eisley in the the original Star Wars movie in 1977. I assume almost everyone knows the scene:

Kenobi: You don't need to see his identification.

Storm Trooper (can't you see him wearing a MAGA hat?): We don't need to see his identification.

You know the rest. An astounded Luke doesn't understand what just happened and Kenobi explains, "The Force can have a strong effect on the weak-minded.

Trump supporters are unquestionably weak-minded. But they are not so gullible that anybody can manipulate them the way Trump does. We've seen others who had this kind of power. Adolph Hitler, Charles Manson, cult leaders like David Koresh. Thankfully, it is very rare.

I think we'll be okay if Trump loses but we are fucked if he wins.

I think he's changed the conversation enough that it makes Trump 2.0 possible. The political conversation in this country the last nine years allows for shitbagging going forward to be accepted as "discourse". We have a huge swath of people primed and ready for more racist, sexist, xenophobic statements that even ten years ago would have been unacceptable. Yet now 70+ million Americans find it votable.

We're definitely fucked if he wins. But even if he loses, those seventy million aren't going to catch a bad case of dying. They will still be here. This is not a one-and-done election. Smarter, quieter acolytes are sitting in the wings and studying the mechanics Trump has shown. Evolution is a fact.

[europeanatheist]

If you say that's what you've experienced, then of course I believe you. It's just strange to me because my own visits were so different. 

I've been at conferences in Shandong, Nanking, and Beijing. The undergrads at Beijing U. were amazing -- truly world-class. Then I stayed on for a few days and wandered around Beijing, to the main spots but mostly just aimlessly walking. Another time a carload of us went to Qufu to see Confucius's house, and went up Mt. Tai. No security issues and certainly no one following me. 

The father of a good friend of mine was Taiwanese, and was making lots of money selling building supplies to the mainland. If he felt oppressed apparently the profits made it worthwhile. 

Maybe I was treated differently because I'm based in Japan...? Or maybe they just knew that I'm not important enough to worry about.

Do you wee what I mean with China growing more and more illiberal? You are a honest owrker, on holiday you relax with a couple of joints, you do not smoke joints in China, but they detect traces in your blood and they expell you from the country.
20 years ago, when they needed western technology and expertise they would have never done it

Administrator Notice
Link removed per 30/30 rule.

[Fake Messiah]

Russians still trying to help Trump win

Russia amplified hurricane disinformation to drive Americans apart, researchers find

Russia has helped amplify and spread false and misleading internet claims about recent hurricanes in the United States and the federal government’s response, part of a wider effort by the Kremlin to manipulate America’s political discourse before the presidential election, new research shows.

The content, spread by Russian state media and networks of social media accounts and websites, criticizes the federal response to Hurricanes Helene and Milton, exploiting legitimate concerns about the recovery effort in an attempt to paint American leaders as incompetent and corrupt, according to research from the Institute for Strategic Dialogue. The London-based organization tracks disinformation and online extremism.

The approach is consistent with the Kremlin’s long-standing practice of identifying legitimate debates and contentious issues in the U.S. and then exploiting them. Previous disinformation campaigns have harnessed debates about immigration, racism, crime and the economy in an effort to portray the U.S. as corrupt, violent and unjust.

https://apnews.com/article/russia-hurric...7a1a827e57

[Nanny]

Contemplating life if he wins. It would be ugly, though I am in Massachusetts which is largely immune to the GOP.

[Fake Messiah]

Maybe you don't have to, now that Beyonce is stepping up to endorse Kamala tomorrow in Texas. Maybe that seals the deal, taps the scale.

[Nanny]

I also reread Rhinoceros, by Ianesco, last weekend, which led to my pessimistic thought. Poignant.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rhinoceros_(play)

[arewethereyet]

Maybe you don't have to, now that Beyonce is stepping up to endorse Kamala tomorrow in Texas. Maybe that seals the deal, taps the scale.

Ummm, she is brown.  And this is Texas.  I don't think she's going to make much difference around here.  Maybe in Houston but Texas is a big damn state crawling with hardcore MAGAts.