interesting study I ran across about how when Democrats are in office-Obama and Biden here- Republican voters/poll takers believe the economy is bad no matter what the actual numbers/economists are saying and the reverse for when Trump was in office. I mean i can believe Republican congressmen/woman feeling that way, but Republican voters feeling that way when trump did almost nothing to improve infrastructure, But Biden got an infrastructure package that no republicans voted for but continue to this day promote when infrastructure project in their state/district are being improved, bring jobs and money to the area.



The public isn't 'skeptical' of Biden's strong economic performance — just Republicans

That seems like a universal thing with politics today. Democrats ended up being very anti-war at the end of the Bush term to now where they are essentially neocons today. Remember how all the talk about immigrant kids in cages under Trump just magically ended when Biden was sworn in?

Republicans become fiscally conservative when they are out of office. Democrats become anti-war when they're out of office. The parties are eerily simlar to one another when they are in actual office which is likely the goal of their donors.

Uh oh.

Joe just isn't in a good position, don't think he has any good options.

First on CNN: Three US troops killed in drone attack in Jordan, at least two dozen injured | CNN Politics

Neocons like Rumsfeld, et. al.? If so, are you suggesting there's a saying there's a thought-out plan and approach being guided by key Democrats in and out of office, backed by aligned think tanks, to implement a heavily interventionist strategy globally?

The OK GOP passed a resolution saying they won't support Sen. Lankford until he stops negotiating with Dems on an immigration bill.

dola

So frustrating that Dems aren't even trying to make a story out of the Trump WH pharmacy being a pill mill for fentanyl and ketamine. Fox News would suspend regular programming for a month if this was a Biden scandal.

Almost nothing tied to Trump is shocking anymore. There is a total burn-out on scandal when it comes to him. I mean, he took top secrets documents to his home to show off to his friends. Nothing seems to matter.

In part because Dems wait for the media to do the work, but the story will never be bigger than Dems make it in such a partisan environment.

I guess it could work.

But I'm guessing it'll be more effective if Taylor Swift and like helped out (is she a Dem?).

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/01/28/firs...and-biden.html

What's insane is his GOP opponents didn't realize that until they started doing opposition research. One of the candidates, either Haley or DeSantis, were doing focus groups with Trump supporters to find out which issues made them swayable. They found nothing moved them.

One person said the border was their top concern and when they were shown that Trump didn't really do anything for the border wall and large gaps remain the person responded that Trump did that purposely to know where migrants are crossing and make it easier for Border control to capture them. Everything they threw at them they either responded they don't care or they explained it away.

The best way to attack Trump, IMO, is to needle him. He makes mistakes and becomes unhinged when you question his intelligence and things like that. I'd love to see someone start calling Stephen Miller the real President to see how Trump would react. You're not going to sway his base, but the more unhinged he is the more he alienates actual swayable voters. Haley seems to finally realize this, but it's far too late for her.

perhaps something interesting going on in Congress right now-one of the House clerks just read a statement that the justice department has subpoenaed the master of arms for congress for documents. Too soon to know what this about but bears watching.

Some early speculation-Special Counsel smith and Rep Perry have been fighting a long privilege battle over his Jan 6 documents/phones which he (Perry) recently lost and this may be over what was in these documents.

new information:


this appears to be about a house Democrat allegedly misusing govt money meant for personal security, so alas not that interesting but curious which Democrat this was

Doesn't look good for Boebert.


Now if we can only get rid of Gaetz and MTG.

I'm guessing with the way things are going, she'll make an excuse to drop out and just take a gig at Newsmax or whatever.

Maybe the next district over will like her more

Some conservative nut job label Beobert as the Right's Taylor Swift. Twitter has quickly dubbed her "Trailer Swift."

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Dads everywhere want their daughters to grow up to marry a sex offender and to give a bar owner a handy in a theater.

I thought Jewel was already dubbed "Trailer Swift."

No election thread yet, just nomination so I'll put it here.

We know there'll be claims of irregularities the months leading up to Nov 5. If I was an advisor to the Election Commission, I'd tell them to start spending money now ... essentially do an analysis & create a public campaign running from now to the end.

1) Here's the list of 2020 (major) claims
2) Here's why they were wrong
3) Here's the steps, measures, transparency etc. we'll put in place for 2024 to reassure you the #1 won't happen
4) Here's any additional steps, measures we are implementing
5) etc.

The campaign needs to be continuous, widespread reach etc. It needs to also collect feedback and publicly address them. It won't solve everything but increased public awareness of what's being done will help alleviate some concerns.

I suspect early balloting & drop box is going to be one of those issues. Regardless of veracity, it's not a big deal to have secured drop boxes with cctv's everywhere etc. Whatever the process. I'm sure there'll be bipartisan agreement to spend a couple billion to reduce the confusion & BS from 2020.

The concerns, regardless of how valid or not they are, should be addressed publicly. It's better than staying quiet and not messaging. We know some of this will be going to courts from both sides, so confront them now and give courts time for a ruling.

None of that will matter. The GOP has become a cult and if dear leader loses it will only be because it was stolen. There is no other reality these people will accept.

I wish I had your optimism.

GOP-led states have dropped out of ERIC, which was actually a really good anti-fraud system.

A lot of the GOP leaders want fraud and confusion so they can try to successfully J6 the next election.

They aren't against fraud. They are against losing.

I've mentioned earlier that as Project Manager implementing systems, it's normal to create a "risk log" where it describes the risk, then probability of risk (VH-H-M-L), then severity/impact of risk (VH-H-M-L). I'd then review with client (public) and create a mitigation or contingency strategy for the more significant risks.

Generalizing ...

8) Extensive claims of fraud; Very-High Probability; Very-High Impact


Bottom-line to me. It can't be ignored, something needs to be done. It's like you see a train headed towards you, you need to take some action.

Albion said it perfectly


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So far this week I've seen conservatives argue that the NFL, the Department of Defense, and youth sports are all liberal conspiracies.

To me this is similar to the Q people or flat-earthers. When someone is set in their beliefs, you can't argue them out of it. It's a character issue at that point, not a logical one, when someone simply is not willing to accept the facts or even consider the possibility that they could be wrong. Almost everyone has elements of this in themselves, but those who have really gone into it head-first are beyond reaching via a PR campaign.

We already have overwhelming evidence that election fraud is simply not a remotely significant factor in national or even state-wide elections, and that the best thing we can do is making voting access easier (more polling locations in urban areas, universal early voting, etc). A lot of the objections boiled down to things like 'there's no way that many people voted for Biden', just like we've even seen people on this forum say the Covid numbers are false. When you're not willing to face clear and substantiated evidence, nothing can be done to make you accept it.

And now we've reached the point where it's infecting both parties. I can't find the source of exact numbers, but I've seen polls where something like a third of Democrats wouldn't accept the result of the election if Trump won. I'm sure a lot of that is understandable Trump hate/fear, but I think you can only rip the country apart so far before people simply refuse to accept what is happening, even if the alternative is worse.

Am I crazy for thinking Russia is behind these attacks in the middle east? They have all their eggs in the basket of Trump getting reelected and what looks worse for Biden than unrest in the Middle East?

They already put him in a no win situation. If he does nothing he is weak, if he strikes he is escalating.

Looks like it Cori Bush.

🚨BREAKING NEWS -- THE JUSTICE DEPARTMENT is conducting a criminal probe into @CoriBush, according to six sources familiar with the investigation.

The Justice Department subpoenaed the House Sergeant at Arms for records relating to the misspending of federal security money.…

— Jake Sherman (@JakeSherman) January 30, 2024

man i'm sure MTG will be happy about this news. DOJ doing there jobs, regardless of political party involved. And if they find something in the subpoena materials to charge her with it, so be it.

Yes, that is crazy. Dems can't blame Russia every time they fuck up.

This is the story. She has been paying her husband out of campaign finds as a part of her security. Not a great look, but I don't know the legalities.



i think i read she was investigated by the House ethics committee on this and cleared, so remains to be seen what the DOJ thinks.

I'm pretty much always for more scrutiny on campaign spending for all politicians. So many of them abuse the laws for personal gain.

With that said, I don't get this case at all unless they're leaving something out. Her husband is being paid market rate for security. He's also qualified for the job. And considering how many threats she receives and how little the DOJ does with those threats, I feel like security is pretty warranted.

I'd be fine with a rule that you can't have family on the payroll, but like half the major politicians out there do it. Unless there is something more to this case, it feels really weird.

So Trumpers v. Swifties is the big political rivalry now whose outcome will shape our nation? That's where we are?

Sadly, what a country we live in.

I'm actually okay with that.

I really, really hope the Trumpers attack the Swift(ies). It can only help Joe.

Foxes decide other fox in henhouse wasn't there to cause trouble.

So now we’ve got bad blood.

I don't think we ever had mad love.

Grassley is now worried that passing a tax cut bill will help Biden.

It's amazing how publicly the GOP is making clear they won't solve any problems if it might benefit a Democrat.

Personally, I don't care if it's one Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan-Border bill or 3+ separate bills. Let's just get to the voting for Ukraine at least who has the most immediate need.

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EDIT:

Welp, some good news for Ukraine at least.

https://www.bbc.com/news/uk-68165971
I wonder what Orban got?

The child labor bill florida passed today allows 16 year olds to work 30 hours per week and up to 6 days in a row during the school year. Oh, and the employer isn't mandated to give them any breaks.

It’s floridas goal to have as many low income uneducated citizens as possible.

Going to be interesting next week.

GOP House on their standalone bill and Senate coming out with their Ukraine-Israel-Taiwan-Border bill. Either way, glad it's on the next step to some sort of conclusion (I hope).

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It's wild how he turned them into Alabama with some better weather this quick.

Basically, a whole lotta pain for Joe but not all is bad.

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The independents surprised me.

Wasn't there a thing a while back where Trumper's were intentionally screwing with polls by saying they were something they weren't politically? I remember that from somewhere. It surprises you because it's almost certainly bullshit. Trump's path isn't convincing people to vote for him it's convincing them not to vote at all. At this point you are either voting for Trump or you aren't. He needs those that aren't to not vote at all.

FWIW I don't think the MAGA's are that coordinated or disciplined to fake out the "independents" vote.

But yeah, I'd like to see some additional polling to confirm/deny this.

Additionally, I know some here disparage the Trump voters as not being "educated". If this poll is accurate, the 42% college educated backing Trump is impressive.

re: that independent stat -- I've identified as an independent for my entire modern political lifetime, I've never been a GOP member in reality nor in any survey.

I know a handful of others who fit the same description so that factors into that somewhere.

TBH this surprises me.

I consider myself independent, leaning GOP on some areas, leaning Dems on other areas. I've voted for GOP & Dem Presidents in the past.

Don't take this in anyway other than idle curiosity, have you voted for GOP & Dem Presidents in the past?