US Election Thread 2024

[Pyrian]

I can’t believe Drumpf would stage a photo-op at McDonald’s for political purposes!...

I'm vaguely bemused at the spectacle of the fans of the world's most tremendously fragile ego fantasizing that his stupid antics are triggering rage instead of contempt.

The McDonald's conspiracy theory is so dumb and pointless in the first place. It easily meets the standard of dismissal: If you assume that everything claimed is true - that Harris didn't really work at McDonald's - it changes absolutely nothing and nobody cares.

As for Trump's stunt itself, well, "Would you like lies with that?"

[RippedPhreak]

The press is clutching its pearls over one of the most normal type of campaign events: candidate eats bad food, serves bad food, and shakes hands of supporters--as though this was some trick being pulled on voters and the press...the only difference this time is that Trump genuinely likes McDonald's and isn't faking an affection for some common man ritual like eating pork rinds or going duck hunting, and of course he is doing it to poke fun at Kamala's claim she worked at a McDonald's once (for which she can provide no evidence), which like everything else on her resume she seems to have done in a Xanax/alcohol fueled haze.

The media is torching the last shreds of any reputation or dignity it ever claimed to have, so it can bug its eyes out and rave like lunatics about a completely pedestrian and entertaining campaign event, as though turning up the volume on their tiresome, humorless scolding is going to win over "undecideds" if any still exist.

[heywood]

The "media" is spread across the political spectrum.

I saw pearl clutching from MSNBC.
But not so much from CNN: https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/20/polit...nia/index.html.
AP covered it like a typical campaign event: https://apnews.com/article/trump-har...47b62bd5142be3. Likewise ABC and CNBC.
Reuters: https://www.reuters.com/world/us/har...ds-2024-10-20/

It's easy to see who is reporting and who is spinning.

[Aja]

Even if Harris did lie about working at McDonalds, she's up against a man whose primary method of communication is lying.

[demagogue]

This is the other news coming down the pipe which makes the McDonalds story even more of a nothing burger by comparison.



What I like about this exchange is Kelly asking "Oh, you mean Bismark's generals?" probably with a wry smile knowing full well the dipshit meant Hitler (as always) and has no idea who Bismark is.

[RippedPhreak]

Shrieking "Trump is Hitler!" for the 357,128th time will surely work THIS time.

[Pyrian]

Shrieking "Trump is Hitler!" for the 357,128th time will surely work THIS time.

Remind me, are you on the "Don't believe the patently obvious" train or "Yes please more Hitler" train or both?

[Starker]

You mean the guy who talks about how immigrants are poisoning the blood of the US and how the biggest threat to US is the enemy within AKA the democratic opposition and also wants a military solution to both of these perceived problems? The guy who wanted to illegally stop the democratic process when he lost an election? The guy who openly admires tyrants and aspires to be one himself? He may not be Hitler but he definitely is a fascist.

[demagogue]

The thing is that Hitler is the only model of a historical leader that Trump knows.
Hitler's speeches is the only book I've seen documented that he's ever even read.
I don't think you can really understand anything he does without that data point.
It seems silly to pussyfoot around it anymore.

It plays bad to low information voters.
But literally anything smacking of the actual situation on the ground plays bad with them.
Do we have to tolerate a North Korean-style "everything is peaches" delusion mongering because of it?

Edit: If it makes any difference, Hitler for him is 1920s Hitler, the version he's read up on and that he checks in his own speeches, which was more like people's idea of Mussolini today than the Hitler most people think of today, which is why he comes across more like Mussolini today. Well that and it's a mythic Hitler to begin with, e.g., one that commanded the loyalty of "his generals" (which the real Hitler definitely didn't), which was part of Mark Kelly's point that brought this whole thing up again this round. But since facts have no meaning to his core supporters, those are hardly hairs worth splitting.

[Aja]

He also mused about giving police one hour to freely brutalize criminals ("And I mean really rough").

[RippedPhreak]

Shrieking "Trump is Hitler!" for the 357,129th time will surely work THIS time.

[Starker]

Shrieking "It can't happen here!" for the 357,129th time will surely work to deflect THIS time.

[Pyrian]

It's worth noting that the reason why calling things fascist is cliche is because Republicans call Democrats "fascist" for things like forgiving student loans.

[RippedPhreak]

Things like "forgiving student loans" may not be fascism but they are unethical. It's a literal bribe: I'll give you $30,000 (or whatever) for your vote, and have the taxpayers shoulder your debt burden. Buying votes directly with taxpayer money.

Now if you want to forgive the loans and just tell the banks to get fucked, you're never getting paid back...then I'm all for it.

[Jason Moyer]

Forgiving student loans would cost around a trillion dollars. That's a fraction of what we spent on the Reagan/Dubya/Trump tax cuts on the privileged, PPP loans, and needless wars in Afghanistan and Iraq, and unlike all of those examples it would actually have a positive benefit on society and the economy. I paid my loans off years ago, but I harbor no ill will towards anyone struggling with them. Affordable education should be a priority in this country, not ramming Christofascism and the glorification of nepotism babies down our throat all day.

[RippedPhreak]

I'm against wars too, but again just straight-up bribing people to vote for you is unethical. There are proper uses for tax dollars, such as libraries, repairing roads and bridges, the post office...basically anything that is for the good of all citizens is a proper use. Just grabbing money from one group and handing it to another group in exchange for their votes is not proper.

As for tax cuts, please explain how my tax cut takes money out of your pocket. If the government graciously allows me to keep a bit more of my own money, it was not a handout that you paid for.

[Starker]

I'm against wars too, but again just straight-up bribing people to vote for you is unethical.

What, you mean like Lord Dampnut's billionaire supporters are giving straight up cash rewards to swing voters?

Also, which party is it again that has passed an infrastructure bill in the last few decades?

[Vae]

Shrieking "Trump is Hitler!" for the 357,129th time will surely work THIS time.

We must play the Nazi card because we are getting desperate now...

[Starker]

Offering million dollar prizes to voters is not desperate?

Also, funny how the most damaging comments come from Lord Dampnut's hand-picked former staff.

[RippedPhreak]

Musk's silly lottery is quasi-legal because it's tied to just signing up to vote, not for proof they voted Republican. Whoever got the million dollars might have voted Dem for all he knows.

"passed an infrastructure bill" doesn't mean any infrastructure actually got done.

[lowenz]

This is the other news coming down the pipe which makes the McDonalds story even more of a nothing burger by comparison.



What I like about this exchange is Kelly asking "Oh, you mean Bismark's generals?" probably with a wry smile knowing full well the dipshit meant Hitler (as always) and has no idea who Bismark is.

As I've said Trump is not interested in politics, he doesn't know ANYTHING of politics.
Like *ZERO*

He's just interested in "being the president" 'cause he's a narcissistic ungrown child ('cause the american system kinda rewards that attitude as the classic fake it until you make it)

[lowenz]

Musk's silly lottery is quasi-legal

That's the problem with GOP, everything the GOP does is not illegal but quasi-legal. It's how the party devolved (involved?) after Bush jr.

[RippedPhreak]

Trump is not interested in politics, he doesn't know ANYTHING of politics.

This is a good thing.

[heywood]

As I've said Trump is not interested in politics, he doesn't know ANYTHING of politics.
Like *ZERO*

He's just interested in "being the president" 'cause he's a narcissistic ungrown child ('cause the american system kinda rewards that attitude as the classic fake it until you make it)

Trump has been interested in politics his whole life, and he's a master of populist-style politics.

[Starker]

Musk's silly lottery is quasi-legal because it's tied to just signing up to vote, not for proof they voted Republican. Whoever got the million dollars might have voted Dem for all he knows.

"passed an infrastructure bill" doesn't mean any infrastructure actually got done.

If you offer the prizes to people who are more likely to vote Republican, say, by tying it to a petition concerning the second amendment, then it's blatantly partisan, though.


As for infrastructure, it has already been built and is being built right now:

https://www.forbes.com/sites/rhettbu...tructure-week/

There are improvements completed or underway on more than 165,000 miles of roads, nearly 9,400 bridges, over 450 ports and waterways, and more than 300 airport terminals.