US Politics, March 2024: The house of illuminati will NOT be holding any other event in the foreseeable future.

voted! (uncommitted ballot)

Turnout here in NorCal is supposed to be historically low, ugh

I just got home from my local polling place and I was only the 18th person to vote in-person at that location.

That said, the ballot drop off boxes were filled to the brim.

dropped my ballot off today at the Norwegian Seaman's Church, there were five or six people in attendance, but nobody else was there

Heh heh you said seaman

And thus ends the most exciting primary season of our lifetimes (unless death or jail makes a late appearance)

Haley's (officially) out.

big win for biden in michigan last night. uncommitted might be in tough shape only getting less than a third of biden’s votes

And the slaughter continues apace.

So Schiff is likely the next CA senator. A bummer, but will enjoy seeing Taibbi melt down about it.

After Minnesota, where "uncommitted" picked up 19%, Biden's second-smallest margin of victory was in Oklahoma, where Dean Phillips and Marianne Williamson each pulled 9% (a greater proportion for Phillips than he got in his home state) and someone named Stephen Lyons got 5%. Still a 64+ margin, but I'm curious if there's a story there.

Not that many Dems in Oklahoma?

hearing that Trump is underperforming his polls, idk how much that matters given we know most Republicans will vote for him anyway, though it does seem a surprising number of Haley supporters are saying they won't vote Trump, and even if only 10% of them actually mean it that's probably a big problem for him in November

Also lots of Indigenous people in Oklahoma who are less likely to trust establishment politicians for pretty understandable reasons.

idk how much that matters given we know most Republicans will vote for him anyway

There are fewer Republican voters nationally than Democratic voters. Trump needs to hold onto everyone who voted for him in 2020 and bring in new people to win in 2024. There is just no fucking way that happens. Biden, ideally, needs to hold onto everyone who voted for him in 2020, but is frankly in a much stronger position to gain votes thanks to the Dobbs decision.

This is a pretty good (as in, politically astute and very solid from a marketing standpoint) statement from Biden re Haley dropping out:

It takes a lot of courage to run for President – that’s especially true in today’s Republican Party, where so few dare to speak the truth about Donald Trump. Nikki Haley was willing to speak the truth about Trump: about the chaos that always follows him, about his inability to see right from wrong, about his cowering before Vladimir Putin.

Donald Trump made it clear he doesn’t want Nikki Haley’s supporters. I want to be clear: There is a place for them in my campaign. I know there is a lot we won’t agree on. But on the fundamental issues of preserving American democracy, on standing up for the rule of law, on treating each other with decency and dignity and respect, on preserving NATO and standing up to America’s adversaries, I hope and believe we can find common ground.

We all know this is no ordinary election. And the stakes for America couldn’t be higher. I know that Democrats and Republicans and Independents disagree on many issues and hold strong convictions. That’s a good thing. That’s what America stands for. But I also know this: what unites Democrats and Republicans and Independents is a love for America.

The Lincoln Project just had a huge orgasm.

I mean, he's wrong about Republicans loving America, but this is Joseph Robinette Biden.

Recent polling from Quinnipiac University found that about half of Republicans and Republican-leaning voters who supported Haley would vote for Trump, while 37 percent would vote for Biden. Twelve percent said they would abstain, vote for someone else or hadn’t yet decided what to do.

Haley is a fucking monster just like the rest of the GOP, that statement might be good politics but jfc it’s abhorrent

https://i.ytimg.com/vi/QAo1Ingszws/sddefault.jpg

Biden needs votes
Biden needs votes
Biden needs votes

One key to not driving yrself completely crazy with presidential politics in particular is that when you hear a candidate who you may eventually feel obliged to vote for making rhetorical outreach to voter demographics that don't include you, just tune it out.

Unless they bring Henry Kissinger (or living equivalent) to the convention

can't imagine it'd smell any worse than usual

Why would Kissinger have wasted time at a crowded convention when he could have a gin and tonic and chill at Hillary's?

Kissinger complained that Biden never invited him to the White House, which is a plus for Biden in my book.

in 2016 I tried to use that kind of logic to convince some of my less-insane Republican friends and colleagues to vote Hillary - like, do you really think it'll be good for the Republican party if Trump wins? he's gonna force everyone to bend to his will (which changes by the hour), he's gonna put the dumbest people in charge of everything and make all his voters look like morons. he's not actually going to accomplish much because he's utterly incompetent but he might make a lot of serious mistakes which could constitute an existential crisis for the country. obviously you don't *want* Hillary in charge but come on...she's a moderate. Republicans can work with her.

well guess what, all that came to pass. Trump lucked into a bunch of conservative judges but ultimately him and the GOP have accomplished what exactly? how many bills have they actually passed since retaking the House? what have they produced for the American people outside of Hunter Biden hog pics? everyone who was hysterical about how Trump was going to try to overthrow the government were right! everyone who thought he was gonna screw our allies and cozy up to Nazis and fascists was 100% correct! do you really want to go through all this again? especially since you already have the Supreme Court for the next 40 years?

Trump lucked into a bunch of conservative judges but ultimately him and the GOP have accomplished what exactly?

The 2nd part of the sentence answers the first. Roe overturned, aiming at mifepristone and birth control next. Federal oversight and regulation gutted. They've accomplished a LOT (of misery).

a lot of people who vote GOP don't exactly want that though. support for overturning Roe was at like 28%. have they done anything which actually polled well?

Demonized immigrants, a bipartisan phenomenon.

one thing Trump did was slash corporate taxes: https://www.theguardian.com/business/2024/feb/29/trump-tax-cuts-us-companies

Booming post, frogbs.

Frogbs should really be part of the team making Biden’s National TV ads

Which, really, should be 30-60 seconds of insane DJT foolishness, ending with “do you seriously want four more years of this? I’m Joe Biden, and I approve this message”

(Well, some of the ads, maybe like 50%, and then the other half would be “here’s what I’m gonna do for you”)

Trump lowered taxes, sped up vaccine production and approved bump stock bans, the latter of which will likely get overturned by his supreme court. that's about it, iirc, besides judges and generally wasting everybody's time and money and energy and life force/spirit.

For some his 'insane foolishness' is a feature, not a bug... and to others it's 'well, that's just Trump, sure he's a little rough around the edges, but it's on brand'
I get so fucking sick of these apologists

I don't even know what a second term would look like. it's not like he's suddenly more astute or more competent, he would be even more erratic and unproductive than the first time around, plus he would be an instant lame duck. hell, I wouldn't be shocked, should he get elected again, if he were impeached again.

Well, there's this big Heritage plan to fire every career gov't employee and replace them with Trump flunkies - J.D. Vance says Trump should ignore the courts going forward
So, a soft coup of sorts

xp

He will use every second of his second term trying to get a third term.

willwould

*shudders*

somewhere a batch of random chicken mcnuggets gots to have e.Coli

he has Barron sample his food before he eats anything

Which, really, should be 30-60 seconds of insane DJT foolishness, ending with “do you seriously want four more years of this? I’m Joe Biden, and I approve this message”

― Marten Broadcloak, mild-mannered GOP congressman (Raymond Cummings), Wednesday, March 6, 2024 12:53 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

it sounds like this is the direction they're actually going to go in, which I think is smart. it needs to be drilled into people's heads that when you vote Trump, you're voting for a sex offender, a fraudster, an insurrectionist, and a man who was impeached twice and is currently being charged with 91 felonies, the vast majority of which were committed in broad daylight, for which his only defense is "the president should be above the law". I see Republican voters constantly shocked by how hated Trump and his ideas really are the instant they get into the real world and quite frankly I think that sort of shaming really does work...for some of them. enough to make it really difficult for Trump to win.

I'm pretty interested in what Nikki Haley is gonna do now - I mean I'm pretty sure she's gonna eventually just go "all that matters is defeating Biden" and endorse Trump in exchange for the promise of a cabinet position, but who knows. Trump is 78 years old, he's obviously in poor health, his mind is deteriorating, he has so much legal stuff hanging over his head and should he lose the election may actually go to prison. There's no succession plan here, no one to take over the party once he's gone, no real ideas or policy goals to champion (other than making everyone mad) and every GOP voter and donor knows that letting people like Kari Lake and MTG run the party would be an absolute disaster. I mean they're getting their asses kicked everywhere now, once Trump's gone it will only get worse. Someone has to position themselves as a non-insane and capable person who could actually win elections, since everyone else has either retired or is Ron DeSantis.

Haley's gonna start calling referring to all kinds of things as 'babies'.

It'd be funny if she used it the way Sammy Davis Jr. did.

she's gonna endorse Lyndon LaRouche as a write-in

Haley will do whatever she has to to position herself for 2028.

It doesn't matter and nobody cares, but Dean Phillips ended his campaign today too.