Good job, guys. Really… really showed them liberals.
God help us.
The fire service is incredibly right wing, the IAFF didn’t back Kamala because trump supporting firefighters would have an aneurysm if they did despite it being in their best interests. She’s pro union and Trump is anti union. It’s a no brainer that a union should support her.
I’m a firefighter. Basically everybody I work with is a rabid trump supporter. They’re extremely opinionated but are completely ignorant on basic politics. For instance we were talking about Ukraine, they were saying Trump would end the war immediately. I said yes by withholding support so Ukraine is forced to make concessions to Russia, which is what Trump has stated he’ll do. I shit you not one of them said “No I think Trump will just go up to Putin and say ‘You have to stop this or we’re gonna fuck you up’ and Putin will listen because he knows Trump means business.” I used to think it was difference of opinion but they truly are just completely uninformed, the shit they say makes no logical sense.
It’s choosing to hope the reality that you see in your head will match the one before their eyes, it’s the same thing that always happens with right wing populist movements.
“No I think Trump will just go up to Putin and say ‘You have to stop this or we’re gonna fuck you up’ and Putin will listen because he knows Trump means business.”
That’s the real secret behind the GOP’s success. They don’t try to be a functional political party, because they don’t need to be one to win election.
The Republicans have turned their party into a branding to be adopted as an affirmation of masculinity. No one’s listening to Trump and thinking “that makes sense”, because they’re not listening to Trump at all. All they care about is the idea of Trump as this man’s man.
It’s not that they look at him and think “This is the champion of the people.” and start photoshopping him into Rocky Balboa. You’ve got cause and effect backwards. You see a bunch of Trump people hyping him up as being this hypermasculine hypervirile man of God and Country, and they go “Oh shit! That’s my guy!”, and start projecting what they want Trump to be onto him.
This is why they don’t vote for Democrats. Democrats don’t do this sort of thing, they just stick to the issues not realizing that’s not the game anymore.
It’s easy for them to believe the claims of “Sleepy Joe”, because where’s the Biden tent selling t-shirts of him wrestling a bear? Why is Tampon Tim being a giant pussy and using big words like “bi-partisanship” and “finance”, instead of showboating and talking about how big his dick is? Clearly the Democrats are “just politicians”
But Americans aren’t looking for leadership. They’ve accepted their lot in life is shit, they don’t wanna hear about policies, they don’t dream of a better tomorrow; They simple want to live the fantasy of having a President who’s a real “man’s man”, the daydream of this guy who men want to be and women want to be with, the real life John Galt who’s also the second coming of John Wayne.
It’s why Romney was the “out of touch rich guy”, and Trump wasn’t. Romney didn’t go around mugging for the camera and insulting his foes.
Americans are dumb and are outright hostile to intelligence, empathy, and class… or as they’d put it “nerd shit”, “being a pussy”, and “snobbishness”
Source: I’m American and am used to being the smartest person in the room. That’s not a brag about how smart I am, never let it be said that I think I’m smart. I know I’m a fucking dumbass, my own stupidity couldn’t be anymore obvious to me. It’s simply recognition that my life would be vastly different (for the better) if I lived in Europe instead of America.
For instance we were talking about Ukraine, they were saying Trump would end the war immediately. I said yes by withholding support so Ukraine is forced to make concessions to Russia
If Pete Hegseth is any indication, your both wrong. He seems happy to go to war with everyone.
Past that, Trump’s “secret plan to end the war” sounds a bit like Nixon’s pledge in '68. Or Obama’s promise to leave Iraq in '08, for that matter. Either way, I wouldn’t hold your breath.
I used to think it was difference of opinion but they truly are just completely uninformed
Garbage in, garbage out. The US media is so thick with propaganda, all any of us can do is choke on it. No such thing as an informed opinion when news media is just Op-Eds on the one end and Ads on the other.
And right here we can see how the system works. Tit for tat. How do Americans live in such a openly broken country. The worst part are the political donations and those donations usually go to both sides.
Just vengeful considering the symbolism of that fund.
How do Americans live in such a openly broken country
By force mostly
'Member when Jon Stewart had to publicly and repeatedly shame our leaders until they created the fund in the first place? I 'member.
Yup, I wonder if he’ll do it again. It took a lot out of him at the time
He ignored the call the run for office when it might have done some good, he can learn what happens when you let the chimps run the zoo.
I understand why he didn’t want to take on that burden. But yeah, I’d have loved to see him throw his hat into the ring.
They say power is best given to those who want it least…
I say, if you’re given the chance to lead and your first instinct is not to. Well don’t think of it as taking power, think of it as stopping the village idiot from being taken seriously.
It’s simple.
The Democrats shouldn’t have wasted a year of campaign time running a cognitively-impaired man and then replaced him with a milquetoast candidate who wasted three months telling poor people, many of whom are full-time, gainfully employed firefighters, to be joyful about the fact that they can’t pay for groceries.
Dems need to stop blaming the voters, do some introspection, and admit to themselves that they’re no better. That’s especially true when it comes to the poor and working class.
To be joyful about the fact that they can’t pay for groceries.
This… the “The economy’s doing good? News to me!” crowd actually had a point.
I like to think of it like this. If you’ve stopped inflation, but you haven’t brought the wages up or the prices down, you haven’t done anything useful.
If you’ve been stabbed by a serial killer, let’s say it’s Michael Myers or Ghostface, someone who’s basically just a guy with a knife. If you’ve been stabbed by Ghostface and I take him out with a second amendment solution, haul the body away, and pat myself on the back for saving your life… I am guilty of neglectful homicide. Why? Because when in that list of actions did I ever call you an ambulance or dress your knife wound? Oh that’s right I didn’t.
Well sure, so you get a milqtoast candidate on the one habd and a literal rapist, felon, liar and entitled billionare kiddy fiddler on the other. You k iw who yoi want on charge ? A compentnet administrator reluctant to make decisions becase only an idiot would be assured at the level with so much nuance .
But you know what, lets choose the felon becase they’re “much the same”
The Dems are asshats for sure, the GOP is striaght up fucking Nazis, voters who can’t tell the difference are the real concern. This isnt even lesser evil.
Well sure, so you get a milqtoast candidate on the one habd and a literal rapist, felon, liar and entitled billionare kiddy fiddler on the other.
You get a milquetoast candidate more receptive to the donor class of rapists, felons, liars, and entitled billionaire kiddy diddlers than her own party base. And then you get the King of the Crooks rallying tens of millions of con artists and pedos and misogynists to his banner.
Why was Harris campaigning with Liz Cheney, Jeff Flake, and Michael Bloomberg? Why was she staunchly aligned with the Israelis and Saudis on foreign policy, in direct defiance to her base? Why did she move backwards on public health care? Why was she shilling crypto on in the campaign trail?
None of her voters wanted this shit.
This, as much as I want the entire DNC to carry my coffin at my funeral so that they can let me down one list time, I’d rather have someone who has no idea how to drive behind the wheel than someone who’s actively trying to wreck the car.
I get where you’re coming from, I do, but milquetoast is an optimistic definition.
There are multiple sources claiming that internal polls showed trump winning 400 electoral college votes while Biden was still running. Straight up LYING to donors, constituents, and media. A “competent administrator” would’ve held an honest primary. Not tried to shove this man uncontested down everyone’s throats.
It’s seems incredibly disingenuous to put this all on the voters. At some point you need to admit that the entire democratic party straight up shot themselves in the foot. It also does NOT seem to be a stretch to assume that it was well known in inner circles that he was NOT in his right mind anymore and had NO GOOD REASON to run again at his age.
I agree with you. Trump sucks. A paper bag could’ve defeated Trump. so why the hell didn’t the democrats just walk down to cub foods and grab one, instead of refusing to get off their asses, rummaging in their couch cushions looking for something to throw in the ring?
Dems need to stop blaming the voters, do some introspection, and admit to themselves that they completely screwed this up all on their own.
This is what Democrats don’t get.
Tens of millions of Americans are working 2-3 jobs at 80-100 hours a week for the privilege of starving and keeping a roach-infested roof over their head.
They are already living in fascism, and Democrats seem even more out of touch because they just ignore it and profit themselves.
Democrats need to jingle keys in front of voters, not spout policy
What policy did they spout? Tweaks to Obamacare? Means-tested narrowly-defined tax benefits? More fracking? Everyone who isn’t a billionaire is getting squeezed too hard, the order of the day is dramatic change. The democrats needed to promise hitting shit with hammers, and they offered to adjust things with watchmaker’s tools.
True but people shouldn’t have voted for a sociopath either. There is more blame there.
You don’t consider it sociopathic to look at poor people tell them: “Have you just tried being happy?” That was Democrats’ entire message for months of the campaign.
i call it completely out of touch: i different, and lesser form of stupid upsetting bullshit
I think that the real story is that economy was doing slightly better, and this is what caused everyone to be so pissed. Its slight uptick caused people to stop and say’ “What, that’s it? Where is mine? Everybody should Fuck Off”. When the economy slightly down-ticks, people tend to be more understanding. Humans are generally shitty and short sighted, especially those that voted for Trump.
Stop pretending dems aren’t also sociopaths. You can prefer them to Trump, but stop gas lighting people about how the dems are actually good.
I think the problem here is that the democrats got addicted to the lazy politics of fear. It’s always kinda been there, but we got where we are today in '16 when they decided that their best shot at getting HRC her win was promoting the craziest Republican possible. If your opponent is turbo Hitler, then you don’t need to promise anything and therefore don’t need to keep any promises, you just promise to not be turbo Hitler and go back to yucking it up with the lobbyists and your pals from the hedge funds. And Hillary didn’t promise much (inb4 she offered a pretty means-tested half-hearted helping hand to a select few people under special circumstances). I’m now convinced that the only reason Trump lost in '20 was COVID, and democrats misread it as people being willing to embrace their spineless platform of “not that guy”. So, when they of course tried it again in '24, they got egg on their face.
The thing is, you can’t keep people afraid, eventually they burn out on the fear for better or worse. I remember the government tried that post-9/11. Every day for years (and especially when they were trying to sell the Iraq war) the terror threat level was Orange or Red. The news even had a little dooblie-doo in the bottom left corner that showed the threat level of the day. Well, when it’s orange or red for six years and nothing happens, people eventually just stop paying attention. People stopped being afraid of Trump, and with nothing really on offer besides more "not that guy"ism, it’s not a shock they lost.
Of course, the lesson the democrats already seem to be taking from this is that they all need to become republicans, because surely Republicans will finally vote for Democrats if democrats are Republicans. Because, you know, the only voters that matter are Republicans, and they definitely will vote for a different party if given the chance, right?
The problem is the Democratic Party beat the Republicans with their own policies. This is why people say the Dems went right. They literally took all the Republican’s best policy ideas and made them happen.
We all know HRC was an unpalatable candidate. Not just because we live in a heavily misogynist society either, she was a universally unlikable candidate. The right had spent decades making her a lightning rod for everything wrong in the world.
Or an “opportunities economy”… bitch… a lot of people are not entrepreneurs don’t want to be entrepreneurs or are forced into being a fake one by the gig economy. Maybe shore up the base stuff before you start again helping entrepreneurs.
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Gee, however long ago could we have foreseen that Trump would have just the worst takes when it comes to first responders and 9/11.
Washington Post: On 9/11, Trump pointed out he now had the tallest building in Lower Manhattan. He didn’t.
Right. Publicly, since literally 9/11.
I guess it must have been too late for them to possibly know, when he already had the shittiest take possible the day it happened, a quarter century ago.
I mean, at least they didn’t endorse the felon
Unlike the police union who actually endorsed the felon. Like, what happened to “law and order”? What a joke.
Law and order has always been a tool to oppress minorities. The people who loudly proclaim to be in favour of it never feel bound by laws themselves.
Have you ever actually needed the police? Once you do, I’m pretty sure you won’t feel repressed.
Hi, I’ve been a paramedic for fifteen years. I’ve worked alongside cops that whole time. There’s a bit of variability, usually Sheriff’s deputies really do want to help people and stop bad guys much more than metro PD. As a rule of thumb, though, the police are not your friend, ever.
Like all those people who called to police and then got murdered?
Had someone pull a shotgun at a house party once. I called 911. They wanted to know which manufacturer of shotgun before they’d dispatch a car, and finally showed up 13 hours later.
Such an expansive feeling of freedom and protection! They truly are heros! Like a meatball sub.
ETA: if only they’d thought to call the cops at Uvalde.
Can you give some example situations where you believe police would make things better?
EXACTLY! That’s why Uvalde called 200 of them when Children were getting Murdered!
Have you ever actually needed the police?
No. For what? Nobody actually needs police.
Not sure if sarcastic or not. If not, you’re in the right community for that statement.
“mmmmmn, boot, so delicious”
- you
“law and order”
You jest. Murder a bunch of innocent kids in schools - prison. Kill a CEO who headed up a death panel - death penalty.
[Scene opens on a wide, desolate savanna at dusk. The camera slowly pans over a leopard lying under a tree, its large body barely able to move. The sun is setting, casting a cold, dim light over the scene. Soft wind rustles through the dry grass. The leopard’s eyes are dull, its breathing labored.]
Narrator (soft, somber voice): In the wild, leopards are meant to stalk, to hunt, to climb. But for some, this is no longer possible. These are the leopards of the forgotten savanna… the ones who can no longer live the life they were born to lead.
[Cut to a close-up of another leopard, this one lying next to a watering hole, panting heavily. The camera lingers on its enormous, bloated body, its paws barely able to reach the ground. The leopard’s eyes seem vacant, devoid of the wild spark they once had.]
Narrator: Overfed and unable to move, these leopards have been left to a slow, painful existence. They can no longer hunt their prey, no longer climb the trees to escape danger, no longer feel the thrill of the chase. They are trapped in their own bodies.
[Cue the soft, mournful opening chords of “Angel” by Sarah McLachlan. The camera slowly pans over a third leopard, sluggishly trying to rise, but its massive weight prevents it from standing. It lets out a heavy sigh, its once-strong legs buckling beneath it.]
Narrator: They are the forgotten victims of a world that has abandoned them. Too fat to run, too weak to fight… These leopards are slowly fading, one breath at a time. They need your help.
[Cut to a shot of a leopard staring out over the savanna. The camera lingers on its face, eyes half-closed, its expression one of quiet resignation.]
Narrator: For just $3 a day, you can provide the care and support these leopards so desperately need. A donation will help give them the chance to live a life of dignity. Help them find their way back to the wild they were meant to roam.
[The music swells as the camera fades to black, and the words “Your donation can make a difference” appear in white text on the screen.]
Narrator (whispering): Please, don’t let them suffer in silence. The time to act is now.
[The music fades out, and the SPCA logo appears in the corner, along with a toll-free number and website for donations.]
More “lesser of two evils” fallacy, meanwhile the country and world are still being held hostage by the only terrorist group to ever use nuclear weapons on a civilian city - twice.
Americans love clinging to their illusions of normalcy. Pretending that we’re deep in some GOP vs. Dem “fight for democracy”, while both parties, for some inexplicable reason, are in total consensus for supporting a random genocide, ignoring their collective responsibility for endorsing a machine of mass murder, while getting furious at each other over the little differences in domestic rights the politicians pretend to care about.
ah, more “boTh sIDES ARe THE SAMe” fallacy.
Also, judging by the reactions to the CEO shooting, many, many Americans would love a change.
ah, more “boTh sIDES ARe THE SAMe” fallacy.
You know it’s an actual, universally recognized logical fallacy (“strawman”) to mischaracterize what someone else said. I didn’t say “the same”. They are not IDENTICAL. Can we appreciate the distinction between “both genocide and god-awful” and “both literally identical”?
This level of conversation you’re engaging in is part of the problem. We cannot reach an agreement on anything if we can’t even have a conversation that makes sense. I cannot sit here all day clarifying that I didn’t say things that I didn’t even write in the first place, that’s a colossal and pointless waste of time, so why are you creating that situation in the first place? Think about who you’re responding to, what they actually evidently think, and if what you’re thinking of writing in response is actually going to put something informative and useful in front of everyone, or just devolve into pointless childish bickering that discourages people from even thinking about the topic. Seriously. Table stakes here, this is shit I can’t believe we even have to establish in 2024, on lemmy even.
That’s not the whole story, that union extremely rarely endorses any candidate and only endorsed Biden specifically for the funding. Not to mention that this occurred under the Biden presidency.
The legislature creates the budget, not the presidency. And the legislature is controlled by Republicans.
Yes, and that didn’t start in the 2024 election.
Have you missed the last week of news? The funding was stripped out of the original budget, which had already gone through bipartisan negotiation and had support from both parties, because Trump and Elon Musk coerced their party into rejecting it.
Ok yes that’s true and I do think it’s a terrible sign on the deathknell of democracy, but how is that different from Trump dictating GOP policy for the last 4 years?
It isn’t, many things have been unable to pass both chambers due to the 48:2:50 split in the Senate and Republican control of the house. Most of Biden’s accomplishments were from 2021-2022 and changes to the agencies under the Cabinet.
But that’s not really the point of the discussion, the discussion was about blaming the Biden Admin for things literally being done (or in this case explicitly not being done) by the Republican Legislators.
In fact, another great example almost exactly like this is when Biden endorsed a Border Security Bill to compromise with moderates and the GOP, Trump killed that one as well because it would have made Biden look good. LINK TO STORY
This was always Jon Stewart’s pet project. I’m sure we’ll hear it from him, though idk what he can do to lobby for it now.
The FD will be subordinate to the PD in the USA soon.
