U.S. 2024 Presidential Election Season kicking off...so who are you betting on??

Yea I hate how people tie everything to a singular presidency. I get that it's hard to follow tons of economic trends, but people should aknowledge that global economics and trade laws are complex and that it isn't so easy to boil down to "X person is bad for the economy, look at how bad things are"

The whole election became purely emotional and people have stopped to analyze things rationally. Both sides are at fault, painting horror scenarios that have nothing to do with reality.

Trump = fashist, Kamala = communist

It's just ridiculous. Sure, there are differences but the US has experienced 4 years of Trump and 4 years of Biden. Country is still standing and the difference was not that big. Global events had a much bigger impact on the economy than political decisions made by one or the other.
 
That Madison Square Garden rally...if you're a PIC or immigrant and you still vote for Trump after that, than you seriously need your head examined for brain damage. If you're white and you vote for him, than you're a horrible person. That's all there is to it. Its not up for discussion anymore.

That rally was nothing more than a gathering of far-right assholes spewing racist nonsense.

Edit: Oh, not to forget Musk's nonsense as well. If you're a woman and you vote for Trump, than you really are a 'C-word' yourself.
 
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Trump = fashist, Kamala = communist
I can see how on the surface level, this feels like a tit for tat, each side calling each other names, but there is a significant difference here. The difference is, of course, that Trump fits the dictionary definition of a fascist and is emulating the most famous recent one, even pulling quotes direct from his speeches. His Madison Square Garden speech last night was absolutely bonkers, and was intentionally set up to emulate a 1939 rally in that same venue held by the Nazi Party of America. By no definition is Harris a Marxist or communist, but the right calls her one so that they can claim it's just turnabout when they call Trump a fascist.
Sure, there are differences but the US has experienced 4 years of Trump and 4 years of Biden. Country is still standing and the difference was not that big.
More Americans died under Trump than at any point in history. Yeah, COVID's fault but he exacerbated it significantly with his actions. And after he left office, more and more info has been coming out about how he was prevented from doing some pretty heinous things by his closest advisors, the same ones who call him things like "unfit for office", "idiot", "imbecile", "fascist", etc. He was prevented from deploying the US military against US citizens by his security advisors, among other things. And if he wins, his explicit plan, one he's said openly, is to make sure he's surrounded by "loyal" people who will do what he want. Trump has been saying what he wants to do differently if he's elected again, and every single one (arresting and executing political rivals, pulling broadcast licenses for media that criticizes him, mass deportations of even legal immigrants) is a significant step towards more open fascism. This is of course leaving aside what his team is doing to undermine the election, which is yet another fascist move that he tried less effectively last time already.

And finally, the US economy has grown insanely since Biden took over. The worldwide recession hit us a lot less severely than the rest of the world, and we've recovered faster than the rest of the world. Record job growth, new infrastructure improvements, the world's first TSMC chip foundry outside of Taiwan to protect critical microchip supply, etc. When people say they were better off 4 years ago, they're usually talking about gas prices (which were low because COVID) and grocery prices (which are high in the US because of corporate price gouging, not inflation). Trump also signed us up for more long-term debt than Biden by a huge margin.

To say that things were not that different under Trump and Biden, and wouldn't be that different under Trump or Harris is ignoring the nuances of what happened under each, or what their plans are. Just because Trump was ineffective in executing last time doesn't mean he didn't try, and trying should be enough to disqualify him, especially since he's openly saying what he plans to do differently so that the next time it works.
 
And finally, the US economy has grown insanely since Biden took over. The worldwide recession hit us a lot less severely than the rest of the world, and we've recovered faster than the rest of the world. Record job growth, new infrastructure improvements, the world's first TSMC chip foundry outside of Taiwan to protect critical microchip supply, etc. When people say they were better off 4 years ago, they're usually talking about gas prices (which were low because COVID) and grocery prices (which are high in the US because of corporate price gouging, not inflation). Trump also signed us up for more long-term debt than Biden by a huge margin.

To say that things were not that different under Trump and Biden, and wouldn't be that different under Trump or Harris is ignoring the nuances of what happened under each, or what their plans are. Just because Trump was ineffective in executing last time doesn't mean he didn't try, and trying should be enough to disqualify him, especially since he's openly saying what he plans to do differently so that the next time it works.
Here's the problem - that economic growth mostly benefited the urban centers and the educated folks, who mostly vote Democrat anyway.

Very little of the economic benefit trickled down to the rural areas or smaller towns. There wasn't much job growth, wages were stagnant, but they get hit by the same inflation as everyone else that comes along with a booming economy.

Its not hard to see why those voters feel disenfranchised and want to vote for someone like Trump. And unfortunately, they also lack the intelligence needed to figure out that what Trump plans to do to the economy is going to sucker punch them even harder. C'mon, you press him for a solution and he only has one word to say - tariffs. If you have at least a college level understanding of economics, you should be able to tell he's full of crap.

Trump has the perfect winning strategy here - court the votes of people too stupid to know he's conning them.

Meanwhile, Kamala has to contend with voters who will actually call her out, like with the Palestinian issue.
 
that economic growth mostly benefited the urban centers and the educated folks, who mostly vote Democrat anyway.
Not really. There was a boom in manufacturing and non-college-educated labor because of the infrastructure plans Biden implemented. That benefited smaller towns and red areas too.
Very little of the economic benefit trickled down to the rural areas or smaller towns. There wasn't much job growth, wages were stagnant, but they get hit by the same inflation as everyone else that comes along with a booming economy.
Wages are stagnant in red states because of the state government, and the inflation that hurt them was a result of corporate greed, not necessarily the booming economy.
Trump has the perfect winning strategy here - court the votes of people too stupid to know he's conning them.
Yep. And it's amazingly successful. Let's hope yesterday's Madison Square Garden rally loses him enough of the hispanic and latino vote.
Meanwhile, Kamala has to contend with voters who will actually call her out, like with the Palestinian issue.
Trump is graded on a curve, Harris has to be perfect on every issue. It's so blatant when you hear how all media talks about them differently.
 
Now this is interesting... it appears that there's strong evidence that the Polymarket prediction markets are being manipulated by a handful of accounts with very deep pockets, likely controlled by a single individual or group - apparently a Frenchman. The top four accounts between them have dumped nearly US$50 million into Polymarket's pool of roughly US$120 million on the presidential race specifically. The accounts all receive repeated million or half million dollar deposits that repeatedly go directly into the Trump "yes" option.

https://cointelegraph.com/news/polymarket-whale-trump-odds-manipulation

https://www.newyorker.com/culture/infinite-scroll/the-crypto-betting-platform-predicting-a-trump-win

https://www.bnnbloomberg.ca/busines...says-trump-whale-identified-as-french-trader/

This in turn has been influencing the general betting markets.

Curious as to whether this is pro-Trump propaganda boosting, or if it's someone trying to swing the betting markets and then tank them and reap a fortune on a last minute Harris betting spree. Or, as the article quotes one (pro-Harris) bettor as saying, that it's a Trump true believer who's trapped himself in a confirmation bias loop and keeps throwing in more money, seemingly not aware that his money dump is what's raising the odds.
You're way overthinking this. Trump is in the lead and peaking at the right time. I smell doom for Kamala.
 
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Whoa!😧

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That Madison Square Garden rally...if you're a PIC or immigrant and you still vote for Trump after that, than you seriously need your head examined for brain damage. If you're white and you vote for him, than you're a horrible person. That's all there is to it. Its not up for discussion anymore.

That rally was nothing more than a gathering of far-right assholes spewing racist nonsense.

Edit: Oh, not to forget Musk's nonsense as well. If you're a woman and you vote for Trump, than you really are a 'C-word' yourself.
I've met many Hispanics who vote for him and say things like "he's horrible but ABORTION."

It's a shame it's such a wedge issue for a block that would otherwise vote reliably blue, Cuba refugees notwithstanding.
 
I've met many Hispanics who vote for him and say things like "he's horrible but ABORTION."

It's a shame it's such a wedge issue for a block that would otherwise vote reliably blue, Cuba refugees notwithstanding.

As a European I can't understand America's obsession with abortion. It's the 2000s, why is this even discussed? ...and both sides seem also so extrem. Banning it completely or having barely any regulations.
Why not meet in the middle and make it accessible to everyone, but with strict rules? I think the European way is pretty reasonable....if you want to abort you need to have some counseling and it is only allowed until week X. This way it is easily accessible but also not done irresponsibly.
 
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As a European I can't understand America's obsession with abortion. It's the 2000s, why is this even discussed? ...and both sides seem also so extrem. Banning it completely or having barely any regulations.
Why not meet in the middle and make it accessible to everyone, but with strict rules? I think the European way is pretty reasonable....if you want to abort you need to have some counseling and it is only allowed until week X. This way it is easily accessible but also not done irresponsibly.
So full disclosure: grew up and was against abortion until I was 18 and, you know, saw other viewpoints besides my parents.

For the hyper religious abortion is literally murder. In their view it's nothing less- so it'll always be a big issue.

For the more sane it's an argument about who has a say about someone's body- themselves or a cluster of cells (in the early stages), or some government.

So for a significant portion of people it's basically being asked "Is murder okay in some situations?"

Note: I don't agree with that viewpoint at all. But it's how I was raised and how MANY people are raised. So it'll often be a wedge issue as people get passionate.
 
As a European I can't understand America's obsession with abortion. It's the 2000s, why is this even discussed? ...and both sides seem also so extrem. Banning it completely or having barely any regulations.
Why not meet in the middle and make it accessible to everyone, but with strict rules? I think the European way is pretty reasonable....if you want to abort you need to have some counseling and it is only allowed until week X. This way it is easily accessible but also not done irresponsibly.
Unfortunately this is another case where the right wing has taken control of the narrative. The USA already had that compromise with the Roe v Wade ruling. Since it wasn't written/signed legislation, it was messy law and the interpretation varied from state-to-state. But essentially any woman could get an abortion before the fetus was viable to be born alive, with exceptions allowed in extreme cases. No reasonable Democrat is looking for anything more than that - certainly not Kamala, Biden, Pelosi, Schumer, and the rest of the establishment Dems.

Before the Dobbs decision that reversed Roe v Wade, most of the fight for reproductive rights was about preserving those standards. Republican-led states kept introducing new laws that limited access to abortions by creating barriers to both the women looking for them as well as the providers offering the care. And now that the federal protections are gone, the legal battles happening in states are about again allowing abortion before the fetus is viable, with exceptions for rape, incest, and for the health of the mother. That's it. "Late-term abortions" are a boogyman created by Republican politicians, but don't actually exist outside of rare tragic situations where the mother will likely die if she attempts childbirth, and the baby will certainly die in a short time anyway.

Almost all democrats are absolutely happy with there being reasonable restrictions on abortion. Anyone saying otherwise is spinning fiction.

For the hyper religious abortion is literally murder. In their view it's nothing less- so it'll always be a big issue.

THIS is the real issue. And this voting block has had tremendous power in shaping the republican political platform. What's disappointing is that unlike zera, most Americans don't have the chance (or open mind) to see other viewpoints and adjust their thinking. And so instead of settling on the reasonable compromise that existed for 50 years, now that middle-ground is considered a leftist "extremist" viewpoint.

Ultimately, the majority of Americans support reasonable access to abortion. But unfortunately it will never happen with real federal law for a long time -- at least not with the stranglehold on the narrative that the right currently has.
 
Between this today and Puerto Rico yesterday they might just convince all the people who are apathetic about voting to vote-

 
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So full disclosure: grew up and was against abortion until I was 18 and, you know, saw other viewpoints besides my parents.

For the hyper religious abortion is literally murder. In their view it's nothing less- so it'll always be a big issue.

For the more sane it's an argument about who has a say about someone's body- themselves or a cluster of cells (in the early stages), or some government.

So for a significant portion of people it's basically being asked "Is murder okay in some situations?"

Note: I don't agree with that viewpoint at all. But it's how I was raised and how MANY people are raised. So it'll often be a wedge issue as people get passionate.
Some conservative judge in Georgia put it best when overturning that state's anti-abortion law: If the government can't find someone to replace the role of the woman in supporting the fetus in lieu of abortion, then the government doesn't get a say. Pretty conservative argument given it's in favor of individual privacy. Someone explained it would be like the government forcing people to donate blood against their will and how that's goes against private bodily autonomy even if the end result could save thousands of lives each year.
 
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So for a significant portion of people it's basically being asked "Is murder okay in some situations?"
The funny thing is that those same people are usually pro death penalty and pro "self defense" with guns, so the answer is clearly "yes" for them anyway. They just don't want women to have any body autonomy.
 
Some conservative judge in Georgia put it best when overturning that state's anti-abortion law: If the government can't find someone to replace the role of the woman in supporting the fetus in lieu of abortion, then the government doesn't get a say. Pretty conservative argument given it's in favor of individual privacy. Someone explained it would be like the government forcing people to donate blood against their will and how that's goes against private bodily autonomy even if the end result could save thousands of lives each year.
Yes! Thank you for bringing this up! The Republican party used to be about keeping government out of people's personal lives. This judge wrote "the baseline rule is clear: a legally competent person has absolute authority over her body and should brook no governmental interference in what she does — and does not do — in terms of health, hygiene, and the like." Even though I would probably disagree with this conservative judge on how he interprets some laws, at least he's got principles!
 
Yes! Thank you for bringing this up! The Republican party used to be about keeping government out of people's personal lives. This judge wrote "the baseline rule is clear: a legally competent person has absolute authority over her body and should brook no governmental interference in what she does — and does not do — in terms of health, hygiene, and the like." Even though I would probably disagree with this conservative judge on how he interprets some laws, at least he's got principles!
Don't worry, he will be replaced with a proper republican appointee soon enough now that he has shown his ugly side(having principles) 😂.
 
Wow... looks like DJT has never heard of Jimmy Savile.... and doesn't pay for competent people to check his promotional materials.



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There's a live stream on YouTube now of a Trump press conference at his Florida dump. Supposed to be a Q&A session with reporters.

It started 50 minutes ago. He still hasn't shown up.

I hear there are some Japanese folks who support Trump cos of his anti-China stance. Should make them watch this live stream and see if it might change their minds, considering how much of a stickler they are about punctuality heh...
 
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There's a live stream on YouTube now of a Trump press conference at his Florida dump. Supposed to be a Q&A session with reporters.

It started 50 minutes ago. He still hasn't shown up.

I hear there are some Japanese folks who support Trump cos of his anti-China stance. Should make them watch this live stream and see if it might change their minds, considering how much of a stickler they are about punctuality heh...
The Happy Science crowd was supporting Trump in the past. Not sure about now.
 
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