It seem like all the people in the new entertainment media is supporting Trump. All the big podcast and all the streamers seem to support them. Now even tech CEOs like Jeff Bezos and Zuck have not supported Kamala in this race.

If Kamala is on a podcast then all the comments are negative no matter what she says. If Trump is on a podcast, it doesn't matter what he says, they'll love him.

There are two Senate races in Nebraska this year.

In the first race, Democrat Preston Love Jr. is polling 18 points behind Republican Pete Ricketts and has basically no shot at success. In the second race, independent candidate Dan Osborn is within the margin of error, just two points down vs. Republican Deb Fischer.

Osborn is moderate but largely left-leaning (pro-choice, pro-union, favors a higher minimum wage; though he has more conservative positions on immigration). He's managed to make the race in a deep red state competitive.

Is this a better path forward to contest Senate seats in red states?

Edit: To clarify, by "back" I mean what Dems are doing right now in Nebraska, notably *not* running a candidate of their own against Osborn. I don't mean officially endorsing him or anything like that.

Wikipedia’s Arabic-language pages on Hitler is extremely sympathetic to him and largely ahistorical. The moderators have been overwhelmingly controlling of the page, and it is commonly edited from university campuses. Why?

Trump's tariffs should be enough for any middle- or lower-class person with a brain to say, "Yeah, an extra 10-20% on basically everything is going to ruin my life. I will vote for Kamala because she won't financially ruin my future." But alas, we live in a world where the experts are not to be trusted, politics is a vibes-based game, and Trump is very good at playing to people with bad vibes.

More tax cuts and wanting to drop the interest rates as fast as possible are definitely not inflationary! The solution to inflation in Trump's eyes is DRILL BABY DRILL, a completely brainrotted position.

How dumb does he think we are? Or is he the dumb one?

These past 4 years have definitely been wild. As a classical liberal/center left person myself, I can't help but notice how the left have been suppressing information.

Whether it is on social media or in the main stream media, we need to do a better job. Being a liberal back in the old days was about freedom of speech. Now, if you have an opinion that goes against what most leftist believe in, you will be censored, banned (from subreddits), targeted by the media.

I understand people spread misinformation all the time, but that's what the left wing media has done non stop these last 10 years.

It's really unfair. I am a classical liberal that believes in freedom of speech, so why are we now okay censoring people? Why is our media okay with creating false stories to get ratings?

I don't like trump but he is NOT a Nazi. My grandpas parents fleed Germany and came to the United States to survive, do you have any idea how disrespectful it is to call someone a Nazi? It just down plays the actually horrors of the Holocaust, and I am not okay with it.

This has pushed me farther away from the left and progressives personally. Just because someone doesn't have the same oppinion as you, doesn't mean they don't have a fundamental right to freedom of speech. It is our first amendment right. Its what's allows people to have any opinion, right or wrong. You can be an insane conspiracy theorist for all I care. I don't have to subscribe to what 911 deniers believe. I can think they are stupid, but they are entitled to their own opinion.

I think the left wing media has had full control over the last 10 years, and even longer. They spin crazy narratives to make half of our country look bad. It's not okay and it's why you've seen a lot of people in the middle or on the right switch to YouTube and podcasts.

What was once now a fundamental idea of the left and liberals in freedom of speech have become the main focus for centrists and conservatives. They are now more pro free speech than the left is. I think the media is going to be at its last blow, they have lost all credibility.

Just months ago, they did not ignore how badly Kamala Harris had polled. She has the lowest approval rating of any vice president, and lowest polling in the primaries a couple years ago. So why are we acting like she will actually be a good president? We know that our own party created a coupe, didn't even have a democratic primary for where WE the people get to elect who runs against Donald Trump. I'm sure as hell that if that happened, she wouldn't be running against Trump. The only reason she is, is because Biden had MANY donors supporting him and they didn't want their money to go to waste. A new candidate would've meant they had to have new funding. So instead they just put in Kamala Harris and now we are going to lose this election.

Just wanted to state my opinion on what has been happening to the left. We have actually gotten more radical than the right has. If you have a problme with what I'm saying, then ban me. I'm tired of this bullshit on the left. We are suppose to be for freedom of speech, freedom to do whatever the hell you want. So let's act like we actually support that instead of being pro censorship for people whom we do not agree with.

https://amp.cnn.com/cnn/2024/11/01/politics/donald-trump-liz-cheney-war-hawk-battle

“She’s a radical war hawk. Let’s put her with a rifle standing there with nine barrels shooting at her, OK?” the former president said at a campaign event in Glendale with former Fox News host Tucker Carlson. “Let’s see how she feels about it, you know, when the guns are trained on her face.”

I'm interested in any conservatives thoughts too.

Would this save us two months of strife and turmoil? Is Biden just ready to retire and be done with it? If that happened, would it count as her first term and make her ineligible to run for a second? How would the country react if this happened?

This Friday weekly thread is for general chat, whether you want to talk politics or not, anything goes. Also feel free to ask the mods questions below. As usual, please follow the rules.

The economy is looking really good right now. Basically green at almost every metric:

Unemployment rate (Sept 2024): 4.1%

12-month inflation rate: 2.4% (2.1% in Sept 2024)

12-month real wage change: 1.8% increase

12-month S&P500 change: 34.6% increase

How much do you believe this economic success will help Harris during the election?

For those in favor of universal Healthcare, curious where you would draw the line regarding what is covered, and why.

Interesting examples to consider include IVF/fertility treatments, dental care, optical, lasik, over the counter meds like Tylenol, cough/cold meds, first aid supplies, glp1s for obesity, therapy/counseling, home health nursing care, long term acute care. Do you see a role for cost sharing / subsidization for any of this?

My impression is that a lot of this cohort feels strongly that healthcare is a human right, and I think it could be an interesting discussion to chat about the scope of healthcare as it pertains to this.

The Nation had a great article on it explaining explaining what they perceive the powers of the President are. It's frightening to be honest, I thought the whole point of the checks and balances was to make sure the branches were co-equal ad no one branch could act like a king.

I don't think we have to worry about Democrats ever using that power that way, but it's on of those areas that we know they will and maybe we should make some adjustments before the next president takes over just in case, like maybe using that power to do something like add the Equal Rights Amendment to the Register making it an amendment. If the argument now is the President is above Congress in all official acts all they would have do do is order it and say it's an official act. He could do the same thing with abortion rights. I'm not even sure he'd need two thirds of Congress if the new rule is all official acts of the President cannot be stopped.

As a distributist myself I am curious what this sub thinks

What’s one specific law or policy you think each candidate would get done by the end of 2025? Go for concrete ideas, not vague predictions like “the economy will improve.” Try something specific, like "X will pass a new whistleblower protection law," or "X will push for a major tech company breakup."

Here’s mine:

Trump: He’ll roll back one major provision of Obamacare, but won’t be able to change all of it.

Harris: Unable to get a Roe reinstatement through Congress, she’ll issue an executive order that will do essentially the same thing.

See you NYE 2026.

Elon Musk? Taylor Swift? Charli XCX? Dr. Phil?

Which celebrity do you think effectively has moved more voters to their candidate of choice?

TIL that militaries are laregely exempt from net-zero targets. For the current year, likely if we include the numerous missions and supply flights, I would guess upwards of 3-4%. There are added estimates of rebuiling war zones of scorched earth that likely exceed a single year of US military emissions.

I hear a lot of people talking about climate change in the election but one of the largest polluters is the US military, especially so during active conflict. How do we tackle climate change along with endless wars?

“There is no way to reach net zero without also including emissions from the military,” NATO Secretary General Jens Stoltenberg said at COP26, in 2021.

The U.S. military’s emissions have been dropping dramatically since the 1970s, though not necessarily driven by microgrids or electric tanks. These reductions in part come from closing bases overseas, as part of the general drawing back since the conclusion of the Cold War, according to Crawford’s research. The DoD itself credits drops in emissions since 2010 to reductions in combat missions in Iraq and Afghanistan, increased energy efficiency and use of renewables, and, more recently, COVID-related cuts to military exercises.

https://www.theatlantic.com/science/archive/2024/01/military-emissions-climate-cop28/677151/

I’ve seen a great amount of sentiment from liberals that if marginalized groups stay home or vote 3rd party and in their non-contribution to Americas undemocratic system cause Trump to get elected, then they “deserve” whatever happens to them. My question to you is, considering that Trump does the things that the Democrats and Establishment Republicans and even he himself says he will that are obviously tyrannical, will you let that happen to yourself and those around you?

Do you think we should give all african Americans reparations? Or not give reparations at all.

I'm curious why are assault weapon bans so popular among the left? Virtually all Democrat presidents/presidential candidates have supported them, plus most of Democrats in Congress, and overall they've proven one of the most popular gun control proposals today. This is despite the fact that assault weapons are responsible for a miniscule portion of overall gun violence, and aren't anymore dangerous than any other semi-automatic rifle. As it is about 90% of total gun murders are committed with handguns, not rifles much less AR-15s. Even most mass shootings (which account for less than 1% of total homicides) use handguns. Yet everyone rallies against the scary black rifles.

This is a line of dialogue I’ve managed to see, not majoritarian at all but certainly baffling. I honest to God would like to see if any of you really believes it and why.

Hearing about all the allegations against Neil Gaiman really made me so sad because after all the great things he has done to support the LGBTQ+ community, to hear he has done these things is upsetting. At least I still have Rick Riordan.

By my count, the 2020 Democratic ticket (Biden-Harris) was the first one in over a century where neither candidate held a degree from an elite university. Democrats have done this once again in 2024.

Going back before Biden, you see a succession of Democratic candidates with sterling intellectual credentials. Love them or hate them, no one could deny that people like Barack Obama (president of the Harvard Law Review) or Bill Clinton (Rhodes Scholar) were intellectually brilliant.

In contrast, Biden/Harris/Walz all have very mediocre intellectual and educational credentials. Biden was 76th of 85 in his law school class. Harris failed the bar exam on her first attempt. Walz attended a college with open admissions. Again, love them or hate them, these just aren't people of the same intellectual caliber as their predecessors.

In the same period, Democrats who do have that smartest guy in the room energy like Elizabeth Warren, Pete Buttigieg, and Cory Booker have done quite poorly.

Why do you think that is?

I have lots of friends and family that speak different languages. Sometimes they switch languages in order to understand what the other is saying. This is a group of diverse political, social economic, sexual, spiritual, racial, backgrounds. We all have hung out or known each other for decades. We vote differently and believe differently but are open to talking and not pushing beliefs or judgments.

Sometimes in politics I wonder if we are using the same language but are unable to understand the other party. We will look at the same thing and interpret it differently.

If you have found a similar situation, do you have certain things that come to mind as areas where you wish you could understand how someone could think it or why?

What are your top 3?

https://youtu.be/dpcmEuwvsxY?si=iPwdEJVYUWNu0G1a

Ana seems to be having a very manufactured meltdown against the left to justify her jump into a right wing grifter. There are those that are “leaving the left” over culture war reasons but it’s overblown.

This election is a big thing. Even here in Germany. Harris for us represents stability. Trump an uneasy path of change. It might be an American election, but we - my friends and myself - plan to watch a live stream.

How are you spending election day? Well aside from casting the vote of course haha

I am of the opinion that a large portion of Trumps voter base, simply endorse the platform because its the contrarian position. I believe that a lot of people do not actually stand by anything, refuse to look too deeply into the platform, and cynically reject reason just so they can get a rise out of reasonable people and stuffy televised pundentry. Its not so much that they have an entrenched position they stand on (at least initially) but they see that people actually care about certain issues and that deserves derision in their eyes. Am I on track here? Do you see this as something that many conservative voters hold? I want your thoughts.

I really wish he hadn't said anything at all, but... here we are. I personally don't think that it will have much impact at all. Most people have made up their minds about who they're going to vote for, or whether they'll vote at all. I have several coworkers that think his gaffe was a political torpedo; I do not agree.

"You can vote any way you want" says the ad. I have to say, I just don't understand where this ad is coming from. Are we in Iran? Why does the left want to pretend like in the West women are still living under the thumb of their husbands to the point that they aren't allowed to vote for the candidate they want. I just don't understand why the need to present this fantastical version of reality.

I just don't believe that you guys really believe husbands across America are dictating to their wives how they are going to vote.

Since Harris became the nominee, there haven't been any major gaffes from her campaign, big scandals, shocking revelations, or anything. Sure there's been the usual right-wing mud throwing but nothing seems to have stuck in the way "but her emails!" did. Her VP pick was well received, and she seems to generally be campaigning where she should be and hitting on important issues. There haven't been reports of drama behind the scenes in her campaign.

From what I can tell, she's running a no-drama campaign, and Republicans haven't been able to get a line of attack to really stick to her.

Am I missing something? Is there more going on I'm not catching? There seems to be a lot of doomerism going around, but i can't think of anything that's actually gone wrong for her on this campaign so far.

Earlier this week, I asked if there were any of you that believed that Trump will win even though you don't want him to. Then, I followed up asking if you believe that it's the Supreme Court's fault. However, I noticed that there were some folks that did say that they believe Trump will win, but didn't reply to follow up question. Then, when I tried to ask those folks the follow up question again, the thread became locked for some reason, so I couldn't ask them again. Therefore, I will be trying this again. I mean, had Trump been held accountable for what he did on J6, it would've damaged his campaign severely, but SCOTUS was the reason to why this ended up not being the case, henceforth why I'll be blaming them if Trump wins. Based off of what I discussed, do you agree that it's the Supreme Court's fault?

In some circles there's this idea that the Democrat establishment is thinking of using the Armed forces in the case of a Trump victory in the national elections. This in itself seems outrageous in my opinion but we had last election massive protests and machinations by Trump administration to try to stay in power and in 2016 we had accusations of Russian interference.

So my question is twofold, one how likely do you think something like this would happen and two would you support Biden to use the armed forces to proven Trump from taking office in the case of his victory?