I wasn’t just thinking about dollar bills when I said resources.
I was thinking about media manipulation. Musk used his social media platform to serve Trump. Many millions of people live in a post-truth bubble, and Musk is more responsible for that than most. As his reach and influence grows - he already has world leaders on the end of the phone - democracy will be harder and harder to return to.
As I noted above, I was really struck by the October ad buy for University of Michigan football radio. When you look at where Harris did not get Biden votes, there has to be a pretty solid correlation to that audience.
My final thoughts and hopes
It seems like its going to be 312 electoral seats, and maybe +4 or 5 in the Senate. The house I have no idea. Harris has officially conceded at about 2pm est. I think he has a good chance of winning the popular vote, I didn’t think he could but started changing my mind about a month ago. I wanted a landslide for the sake of the election and moving forward, no matter who the winner was, even though I was convinced it was going to be Trump. The election was never going to be skewed one way or the other, it was always going to be close to 50% with the electoral votes making it seem skewed. I think it helps if one party gets both the electoral and popular vote.
Trump
Harris
Democratic Party
Republican Party
Conclusion
I’ve probably forgotten a whole bunch. COYR
She is for the They/They
He is for You
I dont know whether it was planned or something they stumbled upon, but they found a group to demonize they knew Dems would stand up to defend. They then flipped the script to say “these people are spending all their time focusing on weird social issues and you need someone to fix the economy” and large segments took the bait.
It is Willie Hortonesque. But I am pretty convinced this was the essential balance for a big portion of voters.
I think the Fall campaign was planned, but it is clear that there has been growing discomfort on the issue that they decided two years ago to exploit. San Jose State is going to win MWC Women’s Volleyball, because 5 teams have now forfeited against them - each story showing up on the likes of ESPN, then being amplified/echoed was free media.
very much from the Atwater playbook
This is a staggering figure
Demographics is Destiny is officially in the bonfire with this plus the latino exodus, but this really drives home the problem with Dems navigating the modern information environment. This is a Demo who are almost completely unfamiliar with the concept of linear TV and get almost all of their information from sources that are not news but can be confused for it for people not familiar with what news looks like.
He is talking about the other sheep
Yes, of course.
In any case, an authoritarian needs public support. So he will go after disloyalty and enemies at first.
But the mandate Trump has now with a Big Win and popular vote, both houses and a friendly supreme court; my God. He has total legitimacy to do what he wants, very few obstacles to navigate. Americans own all of this and must take complete responsibility for everything that is to come. Everyone who voted for Trump or chose to not vote (or did not bother), is directly responsible and should be blamed fully.
I think the rest of us are left with our best hope that Trump’s lack of focus and capriciousness, what would normally be seen as two of his biggest flaws, are what stops him doing as much damage to the inner workings of government as he was elected to do.
Yes, very true. But I have little hope. I think he will actually do things this time around and I also think he will change the US long term during his term. I think the loose social cohesion in the US will further unravel.
I’m pessmistic. But we could get lucky. But I doubt it. I also worry a lot about what happens now that Russia will win the war of conquest. Mostly I am worried and sad for the US and the more importantly, the world and I am more than a bit angry and resentful towards American voters.
It’s 22:14…and they’re still talking about a fat obnoxious, tango’ed, convicted criminal, …geez…he won…lets get on with real news…cause we know we’ve got to look at his fat, fake orange face for the next 4 years…oh what fun…
I view it a bit differently. I’ve tried my best to not talk about US politics for many months now, tried to ignore the noise of it while everyone else kept chattering about it (which was probably interesting but a useless excersice in the end). Now that the worst came to pass and he won with majority vote, congress and supreme court secured and has full legitimacy; I think now is the time to start talking about him and the US. It’s not a theoretica/hypothetical anymore sadly…
I’ve seen a fair bit of vitriol aimed at Garland today.
Europe needs to lead the West now, but I see no such capacity. Autonomy = Capability and even though Defence Budgets have gradually increased during the invasion; they are still far too low for any sort of leadership role; which again means that in the short term (5-10 years) we are completely and utterly at the mercy of Donald Trump or Vladimir Putin.
If we are to have even a forlorn hope to have anything to say at all on the global stage, to influence geopolitical events, we sadly in Europe needs to drastically and very painfully increase defence budgets dramatically (and I mean dramatically, it must be taken from health care, education, culture, science and other posts that are truly important to us). Only Hard Power is respected by authoritarians, nothing else. It is the only, only, only way out of the US basically leaving the “West”. There is no other choice, the future is fucking beyond bleak.
Anyone familiar with Cosimo de Medici’s return from exile in 1434?
Same vibes.
Fun fact…the next Cosimo in the family was called Cosimo I and was a duke.
Not intimately apart from the usual common knowledge about de Medici family’s general importance and power in that era, but reading up now.
I’m only being half flippant.
The essential point was he maneuvered his way back as some sort of savior and he and his descendants only intermittently weren’t in power thereafter.
With the news of the special counsel winding down (to quit before giving the orange cunt the chance to fire him), it felt somewhat apt.
It’s easy to rail on Garland because the non-public work being done is not easy to see. But Garland started work on the Trump cases on day 1 and contrary to popular opinion was both ahead of the Jan 6th congressional committee in several areas and slowed down by them. The sad reality is that Justice moves slowly, and especially does so when your case is wrapped up in the highest levels of government. For some reason lots of people think Smith was the start of the investigations, when in reality he was just appointed to pick up existing investigations that became problematically political once Trump officially announced and so justified being handed off to a special counsel at that time.
Anyway, as we all knew inflation was the primary issue in this elections. Yet here is the bond market now preparing for the higher inflation of Trump’s economic policy
