US Election 2024

I don't think it's too late (as long as it is Harris), but totally agree with the rest of this.

The techbros (including Thiel and Sacks) are far from Russia-clean themselves. Harris could run on tech regulation and lose no votes.

Musk is a total prick. Then again so are most of the tech bros. If I were Harris I would leave what she thinks of social media companies vague. She needs to go after the Orange Orangutans utter insanity and lies. People crying and chanting at the Trump convention (formerly known as Republicans but they are gone), was reminiscent of Nazi Germany. Really terrifying.

People have incredibly short memories. How on earth people want to vote for trump when they didn’t last time confounds me.

I guess there is a lot of mental illness here.

Chicago: strangely one of the sane ones.

Really? Who controls the information most people see? That sounds like running on strict regulation of the press in the 80s.

They've already gone all-in on Trump anyway. And the Old Media (plus Tiktok) would love it, which is where the undecideds would be.

I get the impression American politics is much more about individuals than ours. (Possibly because monarchy.) From the perspective of Biden or the people around him, there's not much to be gained from making Harris a more prominent figure - if she does badly it reflects badly on him and makes people worry about succession and if she does well it makes people think they don't need the old guy.

And I think when she has been seen to do stuff it's been more the former than the latter.

It is of course about the individual in the sense that everyone gets to vote specifically for the president (top of the ticket). And the ideal outcome was supposed to be “we don’t need the old guy.” Biden said he was the transition candidate in 2020 (i.e a one-termer) but then changed his mind because of “division and instability.” If he had been doing his job in terms of leadership transition, he would have given Harris enough exposure to be able to be a credible leader. If she was not up to the task then, like Obama did to him, he could have decided not to endorse her when the time came.

The Running mate pick will be interesting. I am guessing a battleground state candidate like Josh Shapiro of Pennsylvania (although he is Jewish and 'Mericans seem rather antisemitic) or Gretchin Whitmer of Michigan , who I like and she's also a looker (nothing to do with anything), but another woman.

It's going to be a massive three weeks for the Dems before the Chicago Democratic convention which if history is repeated will probably end with head splitting.

Chicago: Just Trying to get by.

I think she will pick a beefy bloke. Maybe Kelly or Pretzker.

The story that JD Vance had sex with a couch is getting a lot of play. It’s completely made up, so we get headlines like ‘No, JD Vance did not have sex with a couch’. All very ‘My “Not involved in human trafficking” T-shirt’.

Puerile and inconsequential… but amusing that while the Republicans flail around looking for attack points/lies that will stick to Kamala (no joy yet, it seems) Vance is getting low-key mocked for fucking his sofa.

They seem to be trialing various attack lines but I'm sure once they find the most effective ones they'll stick with them. They obviously can't simultaneously attack her for being the inheritor of Biden's legacy and the most left wing senator of her time.

It’s probably worth noting that the only thing they got Biden was his age. They laid nothing on Obama except for with the people who don’t even pretend they’re not racist. They got Hillary good, but it seemed like there was just a general dislike of her (for reasons, I dunno) so people were primed already and were happy to just not vote for her. Maybe we overstate how effective they actually are at smearing their opponents to any great effect.

Absolutely not, no. The ‘respectable’ US media is very bad at it’s job.. but doesn’t seem to matter because Trump’s support has it’s own media anyway and consistently reporting that black is white is a winning strategy. Either his supporters want him to be as awful as he is, or they just don’t give a fuck.

When he got convicted of crime he broke donation records the next day. The religious nuts believe he’s on a mission from Jesus despite being completely aware that he is not a remotely religious man. The RNC attendees were gleefully holding up official ‘Mass Deportations Now’ signs at the conference… absolute Nazi shit.. loud and proud. There is no countering any of this with fair and balanced reporting. It is a vengeance cult.