Pre-debate CBS graphic:

Grocery prices since January 2021 equated to wage growth since last September designed to make viewers think they cover the same time period.

The media is a lot of things. But anti-GOP ain't one of them.

That graphic is so egregious . You would think it was from Newsmax.

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I was very disappointed that Walz essentially let Vance off the hook after Vance rewrote history and said Trump saved the Affordable Care Act. On day one, Trump signed an executive order that tried to get rid of it, and on 60 occasions during his presidency he and the Republicans tried to get rid of it. The only reason they failed was John McCain's "no" vote to repeal it.

Hot take: if Trump manages to win NC, the post-Helene lies/mischaracterizations being spread via social media will play a decent part in it. "The national media doesn't care and isn't covering it!" "Biden and Harris are sending all our money to Ukraine and nothing to NC!" "They're needing all these volunteers because the government isn't doing ANYTHING!" This stuff is rampant here, and it seems to be landing with some folks that are likely in the independent/undecided/swing voter group.

I thought this was a mistake. He basically was saying "how dare you don't let me spew lies" while coming off as a misogynistic bully.

I didn't watch the debate, but that's exactly the way everyone should have interpreted it. As someone I read pointed out, it was like the Ford-Carter SNL debate parody where Chevy Chase says, "It was my understanding that there would be no math.”

As far as the media being anti-GOP, when I visited Asheville a few weeks ago, I had a long debate with my SIL about all things political. I wouldn't call her a Trumper per se, but she's definitely full-on GOP and had a lot of hateful things to say about Kamala Harris, had no clue why anyone would think badly of JD Vance, and just basically sees the world as anti-GOP. She about fell all over herself when I challenged the idea that the media was anti-GOP.

At one point she brought up the increase in crime, which I immediately pushed back on, and she told me that she could no longer discuss anything with me if that's what I truly believe. I googled FBI stats in 5 seconds (this was before the latest FBI stats came out, but they showed the same thing), and she wouldn't even acknowledge it and we just sat watching TV in silence for about 5 minutes. Completely unhinged from reality, Trumper or no.

Never mind that when trump was the President the Democratic Governor of NC requested 900m in emergency funds and trump sent just over 6m instead. But explain to them again, how he doesn't play politics with emergencies and looks our for everyone. On his visit he should have basketball shot some paper towels into the crowd and then ranted about how everyone just loved him during the visit. Again.

FWIW I heard 3 of my younger coworkers talking about the VP debate. They don't seem to have a preference between Vance and Walz but agreed that both VP candidates did a lot better their debate than the presidential candidates did in their debate.

This was an actual debate instead of "trainwreck TV", which the Trump-era debates have been.

Vance got at least a draw, which kinda enrages me.. This is kinda stuff that can get the fringes of the middle on both stuff to pay attention, which is good (and what I want), but then you compare it to his "Well, sometimes we have to invent stuff to make the media pay attention to us" comments, and it's just.. infuriating.

One interesting observation that I hadn't picked up on from last night was with that exchange where they cut the mics - two women I work with thought Vance came off as condescending and was "mansplaining" while missing the point of the question. And, in hindsight, the moderators seemed to receive it in, what I thought at the time, was an odd way. Knowing what I know now, I guess the reactions were more of a typical response to that behavior.

Edit to add - I doubt it moved the needle much for either side, but thought it was interesting to hear from two separate women at separate times of the day.

Vance is the ultimate political chameleon, and last night just cemented that status. He was able to stand there, in a convincing and composed manner, and either deflect or completely reverse his positions on almost every controversial issue that plagues him. I think Vance is just as despicable and reprehensible as Trump is, but he is shrewd and calculating enough to be looking ahead to positioning himself for 2028. Whether that comes as a sitting Vice President or a potential Republican nominee from an open field challenging Harris remains to be seen.

This has been the concern all along - someone who is actually interested in governing in an extreme manner (as opposed to Trump, who really just cares about the money and power trip) and can channel Trump's worst impulses, but has way more brains and self-control to hide/deflect it when necessary.

I don't know if Vance is going to be that person, but eventually he or someone else is going to take that mantle from Trump and possibly be way more effective at wrecking our country than Trump has been or will be.

Can we all agree last nights biggest loser was Meatball Ron?

I think Meatball Ron was the biggest loser long before last night.

Social media is killing us.

Today I saw a MAGA pundit credulously share a post about Sec. Pete having HIV. 500k views. My husbands HS friend shared an AI pic of Trump wading thru the water doing hurricane relief and asked why media wasn’t covering. Pretty concerning view into MAGA info space pre-election

— Tim Miller (@Timodc) October 2, 2024

Yeah I saw that AI pic of Trump wading through the water. It's unbelievable what people believe - or want to believe.

There is always going to be a not insignificant number of gullible, or just plain stupid, people out there who will believe anything. I think the number of people who chose to believe it because it goes along with their narrative is much larger.

Does anyone think there is one person out there who will change their vote based on Jack Smiths filing being unsealed?

"It was in this newly unsealed court paper we're learning that former President Trump resorted to crime in a bid to cling to power after the 2020 election."

Who is saying this? CNN? MSNBC? The New York Times? Nope. Fox News.

x.com

(whoever wrote that up on the prompter deserves a raise from reality standpoint, and firing from the Fox News POV. He's just reading the prompter on breaking news, but the intern transcribing it just copied "Resorted to crime.." part from the opening statement, so it comes out like Fox News actually is saying that Trump resorted to crime.

I'd bet Turnip is on the phone yelling and screaming to Fox right now, demanding that they declare him the 2020 election winner, and that he is the one true God-Emperor.

"Resorted to crime" though. I mean, it's like his natural state.

Well, you see, he did some of his criming at Mar-a-Lago, which is a resort, so yes, he did Resort to crime ;)

FOX became bunch of RINO traitors the second they declared Arizona for Biden

I have two family members who are die-hard MAGA and never deviate from Fox News for any other source of information. One of them thought that since all of the debates so far have been from "liberal" news channels with biased moderators, it would only be fair to have one on Fox News with Sean Hannity and Tucker Carlson. I had a hard time explaining to him that if a debate were to ever take place on Fox News, then Bret Baier and Martha MacCallum would be the moderators. You know, actual news anchors, not right-wing entertainers like Hannity and Carlson, which would be the equivalent of having a debate on MSNBC with Reverend Al Sharpton as the moderator.

No blowback from that CBS graphic at all? The only thing I see is a reddit thread about it.

This could have been serious 3 months ago, enough time for prices & availability to impact the pocketbooks. But a month out, I think Kamala can minimize the impact right now. May hurt BF sales though?

Regardless, going to buy some extra TP.

I need my damn bananas (at a reasonable price)!

I'm resisting the urge to stock up on things we have a month or two supply of because I don't want to be part of the same kind of hoarding-out-of-fear-with-disposable-income thing that helped to drive scarcity of staple items and made Covid suck even worse.

That said, if my stance turns into a grossly miscalculated attempt to be a good neighbor, can you please return the favor and spare a square? The leaves will start falling off the trees soon enough, so I guess I'll hoard those first. Although once they fully turn brown, it'll get a bit scratchy back there...

2 words ... bum gun

Next time I'm in Asia in a fancy 4-5 star hotel, I'm gonna try it.

I dreamed last night that Harris won and it wasn't close. Like call Florida for her on election night blowout.

And the striking thing was what a sense of just pure relief I felt in the dream.

I'm managing to keep it all pretty together, but I am wound tight as fuck about this election.

My brother installed bidets on the main floor of his new house. I didn't try it, but when I walked into the bathroom to pee, the damn thing opened and started spraying something in the bowl, ready for action. My wife definitely enjoyed the warm seat. I figure if I had one, I'd probably pee sitting down during the winter!

That's about the only scenario I DON'T see happening.

Not sure if you are serious, but toilet paper isn't shipped in. It is manufactured here in the US, no ports involved in its transportation.

If the strike does cause any kind of perceived disruption in the economy then Harris can kiss the presidency goodbye.

I'm just waiting for Trump to publicly come out against any kind of resolution of the strike as brazenly as he did against Congress passing legislation to fix the BORDER CRISIS!, because the ongoing dispute will help his election chances. And then everybody pretends that's a normal thing a presidential candidate would or should say. Fun times we're living in.

I still have to think in the end the R will win, but there are now multiple polls showing the Independent candidate leading in the NE senate race.

This is, umm, some special plan for housing pic.twitter.com/vCzV5nP8ST

— Michael Li 李之樸 (@mcpli) October 2, 2024

Sounds like something North Korea would say it was planning to do.

dola: This, of course, from the guy who couldn't get a highway bill through Congress when the GOP controlled both chambers.

But, sure, Trump moon cities in Wyoming or whatever.

We just can't figure out how to house the 3000+ homeless that have been stressing Portland for the last 50 years, but I'm sure building 10 new cities from the ground up on Federal land will be a cinch.

Not Wisconsin. He was selling this in Nevada, because of all the Federal land there. You know, what most people call desert.

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Weren't these the people bitching about the horrors of 15-minte cities?

His ideas are seriously something a 5 year old would come up with and cater to the segment of the population who lack the critical thinking skills to understand just how unrealistic and nonsensical they are.

This post immediately made me think of the Sam Kinison bit chastizing hungry people living in deserts. "THIS IS SAND! YOU KNOW WHAT IT WILL BE IN 1000 YEARS? SAND!!!"

Lets say for a second Trump built these cities then populated them with homeless people and people with housing insecurity. The crime rates would be off the charts.

"We have deserts in America. We just don't live in them!"

A question to those more knowledgeable than me.

Let's say Biden uses the Taft-Hartley act to end the strike. What would prevent the workers from staying home anyways?

You need Sam for the full effect, such a great bit.

- YouTube

No idea but IMO this is exactly what the Trumper Union boss wants Biden to do so that they can claim he is anti working class. It is 100% political and disgusting. Trump wants the economy to crash. He doesn't care about every day Americans.

Trump needs to brand this plan. Since it's about restoring American culture, maybe a Cultural Revolution?

So, 1/2 to 3/4 of the electorate?

Trump in Milwaukee says he wants to close down the Department of Education and have parents run public schools to make sure teachers aren't "teaching woke" or "start teaching a language we don't want them to teach" pic.twitter.com/HTjYIIqfQU

— Aaron Rupar (@atrupar) October 1, 2024