Quincy

The problem is, republicans don’t want more regulation and control over stuff, especially food. You’d probably see fast food prices, for example, go UP if the additives and preservatives were banned. There's a ton of shit in our food that’s very unhealthy for us, but I don’t see that changing. Do you really see republican officials voting to approve such measures? While RFK Jr. has a few good ideas, about every good one is counteracted by 5 or 10 horrible conspiracies. Also, big food companies, including factory farmers, are going to lobby hard against more regulation. Even in theory, if a few bad ingredients get banned, it will be more than offset by vaccine requirements getting eliminated and implementation of his other kooky ideas, that will make us even more unhealthy.

As terrifying as these picks are, they still have to be confirmed by the senate. I’m sure some will be confirmed, but I wouldn’t be surprised if there’s pushback on someone like Gaetz. You’d love to see the republicans fight amongst themselves, not too dissimilar from when they struggled with their votes for speaker of the house. I hope I’m not being naive in my thinking.

Once again, I have embarrassed myself

Is this the right thread for this? I got an email today from the list advertising a “very limited” number of Chemtrail jackets: I don’t care for the design, the font doesn’t even give LDR vibes, but maybe someone will be interested.

July 30th, 2023. I had just heard about Lana’s show in Arkansas and I was waiting for tickets to be released. I joined here a week later!

Aside from the fact that the Supreme Court is super conservative, I wonder if we’re just in the mode of balance of power switching every 2-4 years. Think of it. Trump won in 2016, but then he lost 2020 and several of the off-year elections Americans as a whole just never seem to be pleased with politicians. Favorability ratings for most of them are quite low. Our attention spans are short. As soon as someone’s been in office for a few years, we get tired of them. My point is, maybe the silver lining is that the Dems can win back some power in 2026 and assuming we have an actual primary with a clear winner, maybe we can win back the presidency in 2028? I’m trying to find something to be positive about. It’s been a rough week. I’m hearing that supposedly JD Vance is the defacto candidate for 2028, but are we sure about that? I almost think that the only way the republicans run away with the next election is if Don Jr runs or if some other wacko populist emerges. Vance just seems very uncharismatic. Without Trump, he’d still be a nobody. Who knows.

Saw David in concert on Wednesday. It was a hell of an experience. One of the best concerts I’ve ever experienced. He had struggled early on during this tour with vocals, but his recent gigs have been nothing short of amazing. It’s beautiful that his daughter, Romany, sings with him as well.

Mostly agree, but do people realize that gas prices are roughly at their lowest levels since spring 2021? And the president has very little to do with gas prices. But yes, most democratic politicians came across as tone deaf on the economy and it killed them at the ballot box.

I’ll take VP, @Mercan have the top

It was rough, but nothing like this. In a weird way, the country was somewhat unified after what happened on 9/11. If it weren’t for that event, you have to wonder if Bush would have won re-election at all. I wonder if the assassination attempt had more push than people anticipated. Honestly, after it happened, I was sure he’d coast to victory. Biden dropping out was a wildcard, but it was too little too late. Anyway, 2004 was rough. I was a junior going on senior year and a large chunk of us were very anti-war and the whole Iraq thing was as a total shit show. It’s too bad I was just a few months too young to vote in 2004. (Not that it would have made a difference) In times of war and unrest, people, unfortunately, tend to vote out of fear and not always out of their best interest of the best interest of their country.

This totally freaks me out because I’m a meteorologist and I know many people who work for NOAA/NWS who are terrified about the prospects. I could see them slashing funding, but I doubt they’d totally dismantle it. This would cause mass chaos that would be far reaching. It would bring air traffic to a halt, for example. People may not realize how critical aviation meteorology is to keeping planes flying safe and efficiently. Republicans float the idea of dropping agencies like the EPA, Dept. of Education, etc., with no serious intent to follow through. I hope I’m not naive in this thinking… But yes, I’m deeply troubled for our environment from the next administration.

While they won’t replace the income tax, you can totally envision Trump getting pissed off at Mexico or China and randomly dropping some massive tariffs. That will end up hurting the lower and middle class. I’m skeptical he will lower taxes much for the lower brackets and if he does, combined with massive spending like his first term (and things I’ll mention below), that’s going to have the potential to crash the economy. Here’s where I think he’s totally going to do some messed up shit. Trump is ego-driven and will want his legacy to be about what he did/does with the border. Plus he’s going to probably have the house, senate and Supreme Court majorities to push through almost any plan he wants. He’s going to explode the national debt and government spending. He did it before. He’s clueless about fiscal responsibility. I wouldn’t be surprised if they dump a TON of money into ICE. Mixed bag here, but they’ll continue to try to chip away at reproductive rights. I think they’ll, unfortunately, be successful in many of the Deep South states. It’s different now. The MAGA brand is a complete cult and watch more Republicans fall in line. With control of the house and senate, and potentially another few Supreme Court picks, I’m afraid that he’s going get a lot of wacko shit done. Remember, he has the backing of someone like Elon Musk with a lot of money and influence. I really hope his next term is ineffective, but I’m not counting on it

At least he won definitively? Sure, it’s depressing from the raw number of votes, but can you imagine how ugly it would be if he only won by like 10,000 votes in a couple of swing states? We’d be talking about recounts and contested elections, and you know it would get real ugly. (Trying to find something on the bright side in all this darkness, because it’s still going to get ugly)

True. It’s deeply troubling that he’s the oldest president elect ever, yet he somehow still wins in these categories. If you actually watch his rallies and read the transcripts, he sounds like a deranged lunatic most of the time. Imagine what he’ll sound like in 3-4 years, considering his cognitive state has been in steady decline.

Most of the Dems seem tone deaf to this. It’s not all raw numbers and metrics. I heard commentators and such bragging that inflation was down. Yeah, the rate of inflation was down, but if grocery costs go up 20% one year and only 5 more % the next year (making up numbers), that’s still a lot higher than they were two years prior. Wages may be up on average, but the damn federal minimum wage hasn’t gone up in like a decade. Hell, I’m not living paycheck to paycheck, but my mortgage went up like 25% and not even considering other expenses, but my wages only went up 1% this year. Just an anecdotal example and don’t get me wrong, I voted for Harris. Trump will not be good for the economy, at least not people on the lower end of the financial spectrum. If Dems had come out harder and tried to relate to and speak to the lower/middle class, they could have done better. It’s a systematic problem. Politicians are in bubbles and as dumb and dangerous as Trump is, he’s great at making half of the country think he’s going to help them. (Spoiler, he’s not going to) Edit: The Dems basically said, yeah life was hard for a lot of you for four years and you should vote for us again despite that.

Oops, you’re right, I guess those states tightened up a bit, plus the Google search I was using was only showing the top two 3rd party candidates until you hit the dropdown. This was one of the weirdest takeaways. I’m not really sure why. Maybe the pandemic played a role? People were bored out of their minds and voted in droves in 2020? Did people think she had the race in the bag? edit: Maybe enthusiasm was much lower than corporate media and social media led us to believe? I do wish they had an open primary. Maybe her run was just too short for Americans to get to know and trust her? I think Biden would have done even worse, though. Shapiro would have probably done worse. The Dems are screwed.

Yes, but if you look at the numbers, if everyone who voted 3rd party voted for Harris, she still would have lost.

Idk, I feel like this is a collective failure that covers more than just one generation or demographic. How the hell did he win the popular vote by so much? That takes millions of votes across the board. At least in 2016 you could blame the electoral college. Sorry, I just woke up and I’m not in a good mood. I was hoping it was all a drunken dream, but the America hellscape is real

I’m in NYC for two nights and tonight totally drained me, before the official call was made. I’ve been looking forward to this trip and concert for months, but now I’m just. In total shock and disgust. And seeing people run around Manhattan with Trump flags. It’s surreal and demoralizing.

“JD’s [brain] is as good as it gets…”

How many more Supreme Court picks is he going to have?

He over performed about 2-3 percentage points across the board and it’s leading to a nearly clean sweep in the “toss-up states.”

Even on foreign policy he’s too erratic and soft with dictators to say that he’s better. Wasn’t there a story that he’s been having semi-regular talks with Putin? Even with the economy, most of his businesses have failed, and/or filed for multiple bankruptcies.

She’s losing every single swing state that hasn’t been called yet. It’s also weird that down ballot results show that many people voted Trump for president, but voted blue for senate/house races. Very strange. If Harris is disliked, how badly would have Biden lost? Democrats need some young, fresh candidates. Asap.

I’m so embarrassed to call Oklahoma home. Every. Single. County. Went red. Even Oklahoma County (Oklahoma City). Shame.