rolling “Trump is gonna win” containment thread

Trump is probably gonna win and we’re gonna need this thread

the electorate is never wrong

I'm not concerned about Trump getting more votes than Biden, he almost certainly won't, but I do worry that the Supreme Court basically gave the GOP permission to disenfranchise large amounts of voters and throw away absentee ballots. I know a lotta people don't take Trump saying stuff like "vote by mail is illegitimate" seriously but lets see what happens if/when he actually loses

our catechism must be:

increasing isolation? good!
emboldening? bad!

leon czolgosz did nothing wrong

I know a lotta people don't take Trump saying stuff like "vote by mail is illegitimate" seriously

i do. i don't know why others don't. he's saying the quiet part out loud, when a more competent GOP person would just litigate it and let the GOP-selected judges do the work of disenfranchising voters. that's what they'll do under trump, too, but he's doing us the favor of yelling out his intentions so they can at least be critiqued (and hopefully counteracted).

but instead everybody's just like "keep your head down and...vote?"

or you know, try to vote, knowing that a ton of the people you need to vote with you aren't going to do it because they don't want to die

on the flip side

new @CNN poll of registered voters:

Biden 53%
Trump 42%

— John Harwood (@JohnJHarwood) April 9, 2020

the good news is that even though voters will (once again) be disenfranchised, we're starting from an even better margin the time that h clinton lost by negative 3 million votes. and it's not due to biden being good or inspirational. he 's standing in for the steaming pile of shit in the well-worn phrase "i'd vote for a steaming pile of shit before i'd vote for donald fucking trump".

for the second time in 4 years, we've been handed a choice between donald trump and literally a steaming pile of shit

Would've bet on trump (almost did bet on biden to win democratic nomination and trump to win the general at the beginning of the year but the odds were below 2/1) but COVID throws in a dollop of unpredictability

for the second time in 4 years, we've been handed a choice between donald trump and literally a steaming pile of shit

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone)

i'm working really hard not to play grammar police here karl, i'm trying to be a good descriptivist but i can't get over my white privilege hangup that people should not use "literally" when they mean "figuratively"

Hilary Clinton >> Joe Biden

But that's for another thread. No doubt Fred will poll them.

Hilary Clinton had a functioning brain and many people were genuinely invigorated by her candidacy

exactly

xp i call out people on the literally thing too. but the thing is, when i see donald trump, i see a big pile of shit with steam coming off of it, with a little crevice in the side moving up and down in time with the words that he speaks. he literally is a steaming pile of shit, and apparently 53% of voters also see it

she still lost white women though

Hilary Clinton >> Joe Biden

i agree too, it's a mistake to lump them into the same category. but i had to hold my nose for her all the same

She was definitely a much better candidate, but people didn't absolutely hate Trump the way they do now. hard to remember now but there was a time when a lot of online folks liked Trump b/c he was just eviscerating the GOP

I think enthusiasm for a candidate augurs success more often than people hating their opponent

Hillary would’ve made a better president and seemed smart and alert and awake but ppl hated her guts and they don’t feel the same about Biden

she did seem alert and awake! and sadly those do put her in another league, as a candidate

xp i call out people on the literally thing too. but the thing is, when i see donald trump, i see a big pile of shit with steam coming off of it, with a little crevice in the side moving up and down in time with the words that he speaks. he literally is a steaming pile of shit, and apparently 53% of voters also see it

Not that I disagree

In a just world, Hillary would be a stronger candidate than Biden, and I say that as someone who doesn't like Hillary much. But Biden Obama's VP and a good ole white guy.

it's up to Biden to fuck it up, and I trust he can do it.

yeah, i mean i'm not going to complain if you call donald trump literally a steaming pile of shit, but to call hillary clinton literally a steaming pile of shit seems slightly... hyperbolic?

I wouldn't bet a dollar on the outcome. I've generally thought GENERIC DEMOCRAT would win for the last couple of years and Trump will win people were just doomsayers, but so much of Trump's insanity seems to have been normalized and Biden is such a uniquely terrible candidate (we haven't even gotten to the BURISMA BURISMA BURISMA stage of things) that I wouldn't begin to guess how this will turn out.

but to call hillary clinton literally a steaming pile of shit seems slightly... hyperbolic?

yes, this is the part where i made a mistake, i readily admit

oh wait, and i called biden a literally steaming pile of shit, too.

welp

look in the time of coronavirus, etc etc, mistakes are made

Everyone who voted for the Iraq war is a steaming pile of shit

let me fix this for the record: we're faced with a decision between a literally steaming pile of shit and a figuratively steaming pile of shit. in 2016 the choice was between a literally steaming pile of shit and however we want to figuratively refer to hillary clinton

firm, but fair

Hillary would’ve made a better president and seemed smart and alert and awake but ppl hated her guts and they don’t feel the same about Biden

this is my one hope for 2020, people were mobilized to vote against Hillary in ways they won't be for Biden. I had coworkers who hated her guts for no discernable reason. we rag on the GOP for the way they fired off bad-faith attacks on her for 20 years but it sure as hell paid off

I wouldn't bet a dollar on the outcome. I've generally thought GENERIC DEMOCRAT would win for the last couple of years and Trump will win people were just doomsayers, but so much of Trump's insanity seems to have been normalized and Biden is such a uniquely terrible candidate (we haven't even gotten to the BURISMA BURISMA BURISMA stage of things) that I wouldn't begin to guess how this will turn out.

well the fact that "the president doesn't have a functioning brain" is now normalized is probably a point in favor of Biden now, sadly. by and large this is just what we've always known, most voters don't care about racism, corruption, lying, dead people in foreign countries, etc. etc...but once they start losing their jobs and having people they know die as a direct result of the President's incompetence, things might change. murdering 1,500,000 brown people on false pretenses didn't hurt GWB. the financial crisis and Katrina did.

I honestly don’t think Trump comes off as nearly as senile as Biden. We’re mostly judging him on content but he’s still a pretty confident speaker. Biden genuinely sounds like my 92-year old grandfather in the final year ‘decline phase.’

is this also the thread for "we're gonna have a Republican judiciary + sham elections for the rest of our lives"

however we want to figuratively refer to hillary clinton

― let me be your friend on the other end! (Karl Malone)

if you're asking my preference, i would prefer we not refer to hillary clinton, figuratively or otherwise. that's probably not a reasonable request, but it just seems like picking at an old wound that will fucking never heal over.

is this also the thread for "we're gonna have a Republican judiciary + sham elections for the rest of our lives"

― lukas

i feel like we should have a separate thread for long-term doom-mongering and we could try to keep this to 2020-only doom-mongering? but it's not my thread.

HRC is a white supremacist mass murderer who is partly responsible for this shitshow why should she get a pass

So good to finally have someone on this board who can weigh in from The Left.

HRC is a white supremacist mass murderer who is partly responsible for this shitshow why should she get a pass

shit really? Perhaps there should be some congressional hearings.

I honestly don’t think Trump comes off as nearly as senile as Biden. We’re mostly judging him on content but he’s still a pretty confident speaker. Biden genuinely sounds like my 92-year old grandfather in the final year ‘decline phase.’

― Greta Van Show Feets BB (milo z), Thursday, April 9, 2020 2:52 PM (one hour ago) bookmarkflaglink

i agree. i think it's hard to imagine Biden beating anyone but 799 people died in my state today of the virus trump was denying was a problem about a month ago so WHO KNOWS

Dumb asshole is gonna win, ffs

This site has enough rolling 77 threads for griping.

The thread title says what it’s for, it’s for this, so it doesn’t go in other threads

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWFrynfU4AASTY5?format=jpg&name=medium

Low numbers for Biden in both Trust and Don't Trust, so he does have room to improve if he's able to become more visible

https://pbs.twimg.com/media/EWFrynfU4AASTY5?format=jpg&name=medium

its tough when every major news network gives a free 2 hour commercial to your opponent every single night

shut your mouth

he does have a 1.4% lead tbh

Polls are bullshit tho

Most of his 2020 voters died of Covid. Don’t worry.

Biden Woulda Won

I think we've all learned a valuable lesson from our many discussions about how the election was progressing: predicting the future is hard.

predicting one we *like*

I am living in the present. One day at a time.

Starring Bonnie Franklin and Valerie Bertinelli

I was annoyed by many of unperson's posts, too

I just dipped in to the post-election-morning uspol thread and genuinely lol:

Having these conversations in our house this morning. I had a book published by a German publisher this year, which might help with an artist's visa for Berlin. But the lazy/easier option might be to leave Montana for Colorado. Or drive north to Canada, but we'd be in the middle of their hard-right prairie, and have to head for the west coast.

(lol re the post being made at all, but especially at then returning to scolding itt)

another thing he has won: https://time.com/7200212/person-of-the-year-2024-donald-trump/

Does it come pre-rolled for spanking purpoese?

Fwiw, the last time TIME gave Person of the Year in a presidential election year to someone who was not elected president was 1996.

They gave it to Bart Simpson that year right?

Impressive to win this while barely being a person

the person of the year is YOU, the reader (the people who demanded a king)

You was person of the year in 2006.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/You_%28Time_Person_of_the_Year%29?wprov=sfla1

i remember! i was doing a callback. :) but now, 18 years have passed, and we're in the grisly cyberpunk 2020s

kind of afraid Trump might win tbh

It was pretty exciting to be person of the year, so soon after SPIN had named my hard drive the album of the year as well.

In terms of containment, I feel like a main strategy for high officials (and not just in the US) will be to constantly try to reformulate or question what the president said, suggesting he must have meant something slightly different, and then discretely point to a few of the things he ignored (legal, process, historical, treaties, and wait for him to switch to a new fixation a day later. Basically the first thing we all do when our boss is a cretin. At least that's what I think Kaja Kallas tried to do, close to comical levels.

Journalist: Trump is saying he wants to take Greenland by force
Kallas: We're very happy to hear the president's interest in the Arctic, for we too think this region is very important in terms of critical resources, commercial routes, and security. Then points to UN Charter and adds: I have no doubt that the US will continue to follow these principles.

We'll see how efficient it is to play dumb with him. I'm thinking he's too proud and inconsistent to ever show he's caught on. I think he's too slow to know how to carry and press something, all he knows is bawling. Or he might sulk and ruminate and form ideas more and more disconnected and unrealistic.

I'm thinking the main containment that will have to be done will be against his more skilled appointees, the upstarts who are given freedoms and feel enabled at state level, people he might even end up pushing back against in order to get back populist points. I don't know, I see Trump more and more like a puppet, less and less like he's commanding anything.

Yeah there was that article about how the Heritage Foundation were caught wrong-footed the first time but have developed a bunch of strategies and shit, including hiring Trump's bodyman (who was one of the voices in his ear by the end, and got him to briefly sign an order recalling troops). And of course saying "No it's fine, we're actually in control" only works until Trump hears it.

https://i.imgur.com/jd9dFpI.png

WE GOT HIM!!!!!!!!!

A closely divided Supreme Court refused to delay Donald Trump’s sentencing in his hush money case, clearing the way for the president-elect to face judgment in a New York courtroom on Friday and to be formally classified as a felon before he returns to the White House.

WE GOT HIM!!!!!!!!!

John Roberts and Amy Coney Barrett, welcome to the resistance

imagine it's may 2015, and someone's like "donald trump is the president-elect. everyone knows he said "grab 'em by the pussy", and also he's a felon and is or was involved in several dozen cases in which it was absolutely clear that he was corrupt and/or a horny selfish bastard. everyone knows all of this"

haha, fuck! sorry, don't imagine that! i'm sorry

imagine a clear sky. it is winter and it is clear. the air smells good here

<3 Z

Chinese international student in my class was telling me about how his evangelical dad in Beijing believes that Trump was chosen by god to win the election, but that this victory is part of a larger divine plan to destroy the united states

— pennipotentum (@spinozylvannian) November 5, 2024

Not the only place I've heard something like that expressed. The version I heard was that Obama's election was the sign of impending doom for the US, and Trump is the hammer blow that finally destroys us.

God is such a cheeky little trickster.

Guy sure has a plan.

The Korean-American War was the end. Everything else was aftershocks

Weird that the American Empire has been about to be destroyed since 1968 or so.

i wish "what do you actually believe about the apocalypse" was a standard question for all political candidates, everywhere

"and finally, the flash question bonus round, which will determine the results of the election. each candidate will have only 3 seconds to answer the following question: do you want the world to end?"

Trump definitely does not want the world to end because it would deprive him of an audience.

Maybe not the perfect thread for this, but not really worth dropping in an active US pol thread either...

I've been thinking a lot about how to be prepared for another Trump term, mentally as well as, more importantly, conserving my energy by ignoring the outrage bait and focusing on small ways I can make a difference, which has led to thoughts about how I'll approach these four years differently than the first term. And I think I big one will be, in and odd and depressing sense, approaching it from day one knowing he's not going to face any consequences. I know I spent (with hindsight, too much) energy with the "yep, this will be the thing that crossed a line and earns him some sort of consequence", a mistake I won't be making this time.

It helps.

You will probably outlive him, as will I.

Well sure, that's something I'd be holding onto even if he had lost!

Well, that and knowing Soderbergh will release two films this year.

Is one the pee tape?

cinematography by Peter Andrews

one heartening fact is that he's a lame duck right out of the gate

but he's won an Oscar

he lost the same one though. balances out

editing by Mary Ann Bernard