US 2024 Presidential Election

The Rogue Wolf

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I find it fascinating that Republicans are so bothered about unspecified plans to steal the election when Republican activist groups have pretty much openly stated an intent to infiltrate the election counting process. No matter the rhetoric about "defending" election integrity, those sorts of activists are biased, whether intentionally or not, and they will undermine integrity more than they will ever improve it.
It makes much more sense when you remember that Republicans define "voter fraud" as "not voting for Republicans".

Trump claims that the audience "went crazy" when the moderators of his debate with Harris fact-checked him.


There was no audience at the debate. But maybe there was one in his head....
 

Agema

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Trump claims that the audience "went crazy" when the moderators of his debate with Harris fact-checked him.
I've just seen a few clips of Trump answering some questions. In one, he's asked what he's going to do about protecting manufacturing jobs, and he launches into a confused waffle about nuclear war. And that's what he manages when he's not telling us about "windmills" killing whales (because apparently that's a thing in his mind).

How did anyone think this confused old man was going to beat Harris in a head to head debate? And how does anyone think he's going to manage when up against major world leaders in negotiations?
 

Xprimentyl

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Trump claims that the audience "went crazy" when the moderators of his debate with Harris fact-checked him.

There was no audience at the debate.
I'm convinced it's a bit. Like a comedian exploring absurdly hands-off material just to see if his audience is truly committed to the entertainment and will stay with him. I swear, there's audio somewhere where, just like the "grab them by the p*ssy" sound bite, he says "these idiots don't care what I say; I've got them eating out of my fucking hand after I scratched my sweaty balls with overgrown fingernails in the dead of summer and haven't showered in 3 days; they'll ask for seconds and fight for the scraps."

 

Kwak

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Just flat-out evil.
If you vote for this, I genuinely hope your life is nothing but pain misery and regret.


The break down of Project 2025.

  1. ⁠⁠⁠Complete ban on abortions, without exceptions (pg. 449-503)
  2. ⁠⁠⁠End marriage equality (pg. 545-581) Elimination of unions and worker protections (pg. 581)
  3. ⁠⁠⁠Defund the FBI and Homeland Security (pg. 133)
  4. ⁠⁠⁠Eliminate federal agencies like the FDA, EPA, NOAA, and more (pg. 363-417)
  5. ⁠⁠⁠Mass deportation of immigrants and incarceration in “camps” like the German Nazis (pg. 133)
  6. ⁠⁠⁠End birthright citizenship (pg. 133)
  7. ⁠⁠⁠Cut Social Security (pg. 691)
  8. ⁠⁠⁠Cut Medicare (pg. 449)
  9. ⁠⁠⁠Eliminate the Department of Education (pg. 319)
  10. ⁠⁠⁠Mandatory Christian religious beliefs in public schools (pg. 319)
  11. ⁠⁠⁠Use public, taxpayer money for private religious schools (pg. 319)
  12. ⁠⁠⁠End the Affordable Care Act (pg. 449)
  13. ⁠⁠⁠Ban contraceptives (pg. 449)
  14. ⁠⁠⁠Additional tax breaks for corporations and the 1% (pg. 691)
  15. ⁠⁠⁠End civil rights & DEI protections in government (pg. 545-581)
  16. ⁠⁠⁠Ban African American and gender studies in all levels of education (pg. 319)
  17. ⁠⁠⁠End climate protections: (pg. 417)
  18. ⁠⁠⁠Increase Arctic drilling (pg. 363)
  19. ⁠⁠⁠Deregulate big business and the oil industry (pg. 363)
 

Hades

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While this is a "joke" I fear there is a lot of truth to it.


I have to keep telling myself things aren't supposed to work out. Hard times make strong men, strong men make good times, good times make weak men that bring hard times. I think we're at the tail end of the good time. Given the horrors I think possible, likely and coming?
I honestly don’t think that quote holds up to any sort of scrutiny. It happens from time to time, I guess but it’s not the historical norm. If anything the inability to resist the urge to do violence seems a bigger factor.

Take the Roman Empire for instance. They didn’t fall because “good times” made them wimpy but because they wouldn’t stop killing each other for more power. In fact the rather “feminine” veiled monarchy being its golden age.

The Han empire turned soft I guess but it were their highly militaristic “strong” heirs who would lose the Chinese heartland to barbarians for centuries.

Nor did Britain lose its empire over “weak men” given they lost it fighting an apocalyptic war for survival and winning it. Similarly WWI Germany was obsessed with masculinity, as were all its peers.
 

tstorm823

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Whether election counters lean more D or R doesn't really matter. What matters is that they count the votes impartially. And besides, you don't actually need parity between parties because even a small minority is enough to "keep an eye on" the majority. (Never mind there are observers, etc. anyway too.) I suspect most to all vote counters do it out of a sense of civic duty, or even just the pride of doing a job properly, and are very capable of putting their political beliefs aside.
Do you not remember the city of Philadelphia kicking out Republican observers?
 

Silvanus

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Again, that is not what your argument is... And, I'm the one that gets accused of goal posting...
Those two statements aren't contradictory, and don't indicate any difference of position or argument. Do you have any understanding whatsoever of what you're discussing?
 
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tstorm823

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Do you remember election night 2020, when you thought Pennsylvania was going to Trump, and I told you it was going to flip and why? I can't quote the post cause the thread is locked, but here:

In the most politically lopsided area of the state, they opened like a dozen extra offices, allowed people to register, receive ballots, fill them out, sign, seal, and return them in person all at once. Activist groups provided transportation to targeted demographics to these locations and they paid local restaurants to give people free meals on site. Pretty much went "Hey, you look like a Democratic voter. Hop on in, if you vote we'll give you a free Pat's cheesesteak, you don't even need to be registered, we can do that there."

And when Republican campaigns tried to see what was going on inside, they were removed from the premises.
 

BrawlMan

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Idiot preppers.

.

 

gorfias

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I honestly don’t think that quote holds up to any sort of scrutiny. It happens from time to time, I guess but it’s not the historical norm. If anything the inability to resist the urge to do violence seems a bigger factor.

Take the Roman Empire for instance. They didn’t fall because “good times” made them wimpy but because they wouldn’t stop killing each other for more power. In fact the rather “feminine” veiled monarchy being its golden age.

The Han empire turned soft I guess but it were their highly militaristic “strong” heirs who would lose the Chinese heartland to barbarians for centuries.

Nor did Britain lose its empire over “weak men” given they lost it fighting an apocalyptic war for survival and winning it. Similarly WWI Germany was obsessed with masculinity, as were all its peers.
I've got to write, I'd never heard that view of what happened to the Roman Empire. The "they wouldn't stop killing each other" was a symptom of deep corruption. Can a state with scant resources afford to be so corrupt? I suppose but its got to be that much more noticeable "Hey, didja ever notice that we're all caked in mud and starving but the king is fat as heck?" sorta thing. Germany's WWI problem was that they ran into other strong men.
My mom used to tell me that Nazi Germany had an excess of nationalism. I wonder if France, having a good time, suffered from a lack of it and never bothered to finish their Maginot line.
 

BrawlMan

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Silvanus

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In the most politically lopsided area of the state, they opened like a dozen extra offices, allowed people to register, receive ballots, fill them out, sign, seal, and return them in person all at once. Activist groups provided transportation to targeted demographics to these locations and they paid local restaurants to give people free meals on site. Pretty much went "Hey, you look like a Democratic voter. Hop on in, if you vote we'll give you a free Pat's cheesesteak, you don't even need to be registered, we can do that there."

And when Republican campaigns tried to see what was going on inside, they were removed from the premises.
Republican fury at efforts to make voting easily accessible for eligible, legal voters never ceases to be fucking vile.

Of course, Republicans are more than welcome to make voting easier in their own areas too. But why would they? Their entire approach centres on depressing turnout, not appealing to people; easier to moan and gripe and invent conspiracy theories about things like... uhrm, community engagement and assistance.
 
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tstorm823

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Republican fury at efforts to make voting easily accessible for eligible, legal voters never ceases to be fucking vile.

Of course, Republicans are more than welcome to make voting easier in their own areas too. But why would they? Their entire approach centres on depressing turnout, not appealing to people; easier to moan and gripe and invent conspiracy theories about things like... uhrm, community engagement and assistance.
Republicans do work to make voting easier in their own areas. Republican support for mail-in votes goes back to Abraham Lincoln, Republicans today are no less supportive of giving soldiers a means to vote than Lincoln was. Those soldiers vote for Republicans, it's not surprising. But it has to be within the bounds of the law. My state, Pennsylvania, had just passed bipartisan election reform before the 2020 election, that largely made voting easier and more accessible, while still having defined rules for voting. Those terms were agreed upon. Then Democrats flagrantly broke those laws in areas they controlled, laws that they played a large part in writing. You can't credit people for making voting easier when they wrote the rules themselves and then just decided not to follow them. That's not admirable.
 

Silvanus

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Republicans do work to make voting easier in their own areas. Republican support for mail-in votes goes back to Abraham Lincoln, Republicans today are no less supportive of giving soldiers a means to vote than Lincoln was. Those soldiers vote for Republicans, it's not surprising. But it has to be within the bounds of the law. My state, Pennsylvania, had just passed bipartisan election reform before the 2020 election, that largely made voting easier and more accessible, while still having defined rules for voting. Those terms were agreed upon. Then Democrats flagrantly broke those laws in areas they controlled, laws that they played a large part in writing. You can't credit people for making voting easier when they wrote the rules themselves and then just decided not to follow them. That's not admirable.
Hmmm, but what you were complaining about above weren't lawbreaking measures, were they? Providing transportation, opening additional offices, etc. Your issue is that these things made it easier for people to vote in areas you don't want to be voting.

The idea that the modern Republican party is as keen as the party of old to provide easy access to vote is an absolute farce.
 
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