I saw a poll that puts Harris up by 8 in NE-2. That severely limits Trump's electoral path. It requires him (at minimum) to win one of the three rust belt states (WI, MI, PA).

Old high school friend on Facebook was going through all of the Democratic slogans and putting them next to Nazi slogans to show that they are the exact same.

She, of course, then emphasized that she's an Independent because she thinks there are problems with both parties.

Always amazing to me how these Independents are always neither a Democrat nor a Republican but actually a third thing (still basically a Republican).


(I actually think that this board is a bit of an exception with some of the few actual independents I've encountered online).

We haven't heard much about Hunter Biden over the past month. It's almost like that entire thing was politically driven.

They are going to get the truth about Obama's birth certificate.

Watters: Obama is still the godfather of this machine… That is why we will be sending Johnny to Hawaii to get the truth about the birth certificate. This time we will dig deep and find out what really happened. pic.twitter.com/aqf1C6k3B7

— Acyn (@Acyn) August 20, 2024

Gamechanger

They're just Republicans who are embarrassed to admit it. It's a fool's errand chasing those votes. No matter how much you give in to them, they'll still find a reason to vote Trump.

100%, a guy I know from the gym identifies as an independent, yet has a Trump flag on his Harley, acts and dresses like somebody with a front row seat at 21 straight Trump rallies. I basically told him the same, why don't you just register as a republican, independent is not worshipping the far right.

As an example of the dress thing, a few of us went to a spring training game this year and I noticed when we went to get adult beverages, his T-Shirt said "I comfortable with violence" on the back. It pretty much led to me needling him the rest of the game, lamenting that I did not have a "Badass" section in my closet like he apparently does.

I just watched the Rollcall from last night. That's all I could make it through. I swear the DJ is just a puppet/marionette and wonder who's running the strings. Who was that rapper from Georgia . It reminded me of the scene from Idiocracy.

I think it's more they call themselves Independents to try to convert people into Republicans.

Just because one considers themselves an independent doesn't be they don't have strong opinions about issues or that can't lean strongly toward a certain ideology.

Yeah, that’s a special third thing

There are people who are independent that fall to the left or the right of the current parties. But I don't think there are many who fall in the middle. The parties are so close on most issues that the idea that there is some moderate candidate in the middle they'd vote for is kind of silly.

I think Trump is embarrassing to many from a social perspective, so they just pretend to be independents so they don't have to openly support him even though they will vote for him.

Has anybody ever met a self-declared independent that favors dem policies (pre-Trump I guess, to make a distinction) ? I'm sure they exist, but I've coincidentally never met one.

There is a reason why there are constant rumors she is going to run for president that come from both the right and the left. She is just so good orator and comes across so real. Unfortunately, she also hates politics in general. If she ever decides to run for office, or take a cabinet level role in an administration, watch out.

This is a bannable offense.

I watched it and enjoyed it. It actually caught my kids' interest (for a bit) and they asked questions about the process of states nominating candidates and what happens if x, y, z happens instead or if it isn't unanimous. The DJ actually took time to curate an individual song or songs for each state. I had never heard of him before and, while it was cheesy at times, one of the big goals of these conventions is to get the most ardent supporters fired up and excited about candidates and their platforms, so they can turn around and go home and have something to take back to voters to be excited about. I think it achieved that goal in a pretty remarkable way and I'd be surprised if the GOP and future Dem conventions don't use it to build off of in the future.

It's hard to believe that you are anywhere in the age range of most of the folks that post on this board and have never heard of Lil' Jon. He's a Grammy winning rapper and producer that has been around for more than 20 years. He is very well known for being a part of the Atlanta music scene (along with guys like Ludacris and Usher) and has had like half a dozen top 10 songs. Also, he literally performed at the Super Bowl last year.

Most of the responses about the roll call that I have seen were pretty positive, since it is typically a boring and formal piece of business. The fact people are talking about today is pretty wild.

I'm an independent, but identify as very liberal on social policies and moderate on the economy. My state has gotten so conservative, it is better to be able to vote for the best Republican in the primaries, since the GOP winner is more than likely going to win the general election. I voted in the Dem primary this year because there were actually some candidates I wanted to vote for and support, but most years it is trying to find the best Republican candidate (which to me is typically the one that I think will act more like a Libertarian).

I don't know how to function in a world where the Democratic party is so competent. The Milwaukee rally integrated with the roll call was... ingenious?

I check in on WV politics every now and then and it's gotten so crazy. The obsession with raw milk was something I had to look into because I didn't understand why so many people wanted the right to buy raw milk and so many politicians wanted to allow it.

The party is filled with competent people. They've been crushing it in the midwest and rust belt with Governors of late. Just needed the old guard who still thought it was 1984 to step aside.

Meanwhile, the Republican party is trying to return to 1860.

I can’t stop thinking about the planners discussing having Lil Jon there during of ALL of things….the roll call. PLEASE tell me that they at least joked about the possibility of him doing a rewrite of “Real Nigga Roll Call” for the event. :D :D :D I’m gonna need Roy Wood Jr to discuss this one, y’all.

Side note: today I learned that RNRC once held the Guinness Book record for most swears in a single rap song. Kinda makes me proud that that specific song was my hard stop on putting in effort to pay attention to the latest hip hop. �� I was sooooooo disappointed with Cube for being a part of that nonsense.

My brother falls into that category. I suspect he is registered as independent because of his job, but his views are definitely toward the left side of the political spectrum.

I’ve heard of Li'l Sebastian, but not Lil John. I haven't listened to much radio since the early 90s, and don't listen to rap for the most part. And I tend to skip the halftime shows for the Super Bowl. I am at least aware of Ludacris and Usher, even though I couldn't identify a song for either one. I know Ludacris was in some commercial that I saw recently.

I am sad for those of you that have apparently never seen the masterpiece that is the 'Turn Down for What' video:

WHAT?!

OKAY!

For the first 45 years of my life the GOP were always an immovable, consolidated force, and it seemed like they would always be that way via gerrymandering and ruthless maneuvering, while the Democrats were always a herd of good-intentioned cats that could never quite get it together. It IS a trip to finally see those tables turn...though the deck is still stacked for the GOP.

It's pretty remarkable how different it is. When I was in high school, West Virginia had 4 US Representatives and the 2 longtime senators (Byrd for the entire time and then Jennings Randolph and Rockefeller) and they were all democrats. Now, we are down to just 2 US Reps (both GOP and not competitive) and the 2 senators will be GOP with Manchin retiring. It is hard to imagine any of those seats going back to the democrats, maybe in my lifetime. And there is barely any bench for the dems now, either. They have 3 (out of 34) in the state senate and 11 (out of 89) due to all the gerrymandering. It's pretty odd - the last four governors have all been elected as Dems (with Justice switching parties after being elected, but he is kind of like Trump and just goes with whatever he thinks is popular), but I doubt we will see another statewide Dem elected in quite some time.

I was just thinking about that monologue that Eastwood did at the RNC in 2012, where he had an empty chair on stage and pretended it was Obama talking with him. These guys really are weird and have been for awhile now.

I was really hoping the roll call would be something like this:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_B4GbwySRzY

In the immortal words of Curly Bill Brocius "Well.....bye."

BREAKING on @MSNBC:

RFK Jr. plans to end his 2024 presidential bid and endorse Trump.

— Kyle Griffin (@kylegriffin1) August 21, 2024

I’ve listened almost exclusively to punk and metal my whole life, with Taylor swift mixed in, and even I know who lil John is.

Ban hammer.

I think that dropping out helps Trump. The dem-leaning Kennedy supporters already came home when Biden left the race.

I don't think that endorsing Trump really matters one way or another.

Though Trump/Vance/Kennedy does not really do much to counteract the "weird" attack.

Michigan is going to be a tough ask for Democrats.

NC is Michigan's EVs plus one.

If she were to win NC, she could lose Michigan and Nebraska could play shenanigans with the Omaha EV, and it would be a wash.

There's a reason that Trump was down here today.

NC is interesting. It's shifting like Virginia did a decade ago. Still think it's too early for a flip but who knows? Michigan should be an easily winnable state but they've made it much more difficult.

Another option might be Nevada/Arizona. Republicans have disastrous Senate candidates in both states which isn't helping Trump. The union support should help Harris win Nevada in my opinion. Arizona is such an odd state to predict.

Mass Arrests As Protesters, Chicago Police Clash At Israeli Consulate | Chicago, IL Patch

It's weird that apparently Mike Lindell is outside arguing with protesters and the article doesn't even mention it.

Huh? The article mentioned him and even showed a picture

There's a picture with a caption mentioning him, but the article doesn't. Probably nitpicky, but I still found it weird.

Yeah, the D-leaning Kennedy folks mostly already came home, but I'm sure a sizable percentage--probably the majority--of his remaining supporters won't vote for either major party and will either go Libertarian or just stay home, so my guess is that it's a really minor bump for him.


That said, it feels like the overall impact of a handful of little things that "don't really matter" may well end up deciding this election. A few hundred people in PA switch to Trump because of this. A few hundred switch to Harris for some other other "inconsequential" reason. A few hundred stay home because it's too hot/cold/rainy or the babysitter gets sick on election day and it happens that the hot/cold/rain/sickness spike happens to hit in a part of the state that is more heavily red or blue. Etc. Etc. Etc.

Bill Clinton just taking that jab at Trump saying he is the oldest man in his family of four generations, and he is still younger than Trump.

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This speech was a little rough at the start much better as he got going.

The energy of this convention compared to the RNC is night and day. Trump has beat the party down so much using fear and scare tactics that they have nothing to be excited for.

I don't think this is true at all. I agree with each party on a fairly equal number of issues, and they have become more alike in some ways, but there are still big differences between them and there's plenty of room in the middle.

Totally agree with the idea that some Independents are pretty transparently ... not, and just like calling themselves that. One of the most annoying trends to me in social media is people linking posts that clearly have an axe to grind and just saying 'not looking for a debate, just food for thought, blah blah blah'. It's definitely not isolated to the right wing, but if you are going to stand for something, stand for it. If not, don't post it.

Outside of some social issues, what issues is there a wide gap on? They are nearly identical in terms of economic and foreign policy.

There's a reason neither campaign is really touting policy.

The Democrats would be able to call Trump a pedophile if they didn't have to continue supporting the Clintons for some insane reason.

I especially love it when someone says that they’re doing their own research but they wouldn’t know research if it sat on their face.


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