• Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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    2 months ago

    I’m a lifelong fan of political dramas. I watched the BBC version of House of Cards and adored The Manchurian Candidate.

    There’s stuff going on in this election that makes everything I ever read seem placid and tame.

    • assembly@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      Republicans would vote for the corpse of Trump before even considering not making a terrible decision. I cannot believe that this election is this close. It’s mind boggling that the outcome is currently a toss up between Nazi spray tan confused grandpa and middle road politician.

      • Hemingways_Shotgun@lemmy.ca
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        2 months ago

        The point isn’t to get Trump into the Whitehouse; it’s to get Vance into the whitehouse.

        Trump will legitimately kick the bucket within the next four years, guaranteed. And Vance will be the one to take his place. Vance will be the one who is suddenly an “incumbant” backed by the heritage foundation who is actually reasonably well spoken, able to debate, far smarter than Trump, and younger.

        Vance wasn’t “chosen” by Trump, he came as a part of the deal with the Heritage Foundation to get him elected.

        • meco03211@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          My hope is that after Herr Trump finally croaks there will be a power vacuum in the party. Sure if he’s elected and it happens in office there will be an effort to consolidate around Vance, but you know some looked over pissant is waiting in the wings to try to take the reins. If he’s not elected it will likely be much more tumultuous. Here’s hoping.

          • flying_mechanic@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            Trump is a figurehead and mouth piece only, it’s clear the backing and power behind him is pushing him, not the other way around. If Trump is dead or unelectable then they will sub in someone else. Trump’s “saving grace” is that he was good at speaking in a relatable but obfuscating way which worked to foment the masses against imagined grievances, but that’s not a trait unique to him. He is unfortunately replaceable with not much loss in momentum.

            • drphungky@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              Trump is definitely not a “figurehead only”. He is a tiger that what’s left of the Republican establishment has by the tail. They did not want him to win the primary again, they all hate him, and are just trying to get whatever judicial appointments and erosion of regulations they can out of him. Anyone who thinks Trump is a puppet is absolutely blind to American politics. He is an absolute wildcard that everyone is trying to react to, a whirlwind that folks hope they can push in the direction they want to destroy the things they want, but they are equally aware they can fall out of grace and be fired in two weeks like everyone in his last administration.

        • Semi-Hemi-Lemmygod@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Trump will legitimately kick the bucket within the next four years, guaranteed.

          Putin is furiously trying to figure out how to put polonium into a Big Mac

      • radiohead37@lemmynsfw.com
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        2 months ago

        It’s infuriating that the election is this close. People were complaining that Biden was too old. A smart qualified candidate took his place, Trump now is having mental breakdowns in public, and somehow, the election is still a toss-up.

      • 800XL@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        If he died tomorrow Republicans would be Black-Friday-75%-off-smart-tvs trampling each other to be the one to skin him and wear him so they could continue the coup.

        • growsomethinggood ()@reddthat.com
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          2 months ago

          Bruh I know the Overton window in the US is megafucked but she’s literally one of our most liberal politicians by voting record, she is not “firmly right wing” by any reasonable standard

          • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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            2 months ago

            She’s in favor of a fascist border policy against asylum seekers, a firm supporter of the fascist Zionist entity known as Israel, and wants to appoint members of the fascist party to her cabinet if she wins. She’s been endorsed by architects of the Iraq war and the US torture program.

            California’s top cop is right-wing.

            • growsomethinggood ()@reddthat.com
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              2 months ago

              Don’t mistake me for a Kamala Harris apologist- she is absolutely a huge centrist in her presidential campaign. I am tired of this false equivalency with the total fascist ilk she’s running against. It’s not useful and it’s dishonest.

              • GlobalCompatriot@lemm.ee
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                2 months ago

                She is not a centrist, Bill Clinton was a centrist. With what she’s proposing, her actions, and the endorsements she’s fought for, she’s on par with Trump. She may not say the quiet parts out loud like trump, but her actions speak louder than the words she’s not saying.

                • growsomethinggood ()@reddthat.com
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                  2 months ago

                  I hate to be pedantic but that’s almost exactly the definition of a centrist, someone who collaborates with both sides (even if one of those sides is fascist, genocidal, racist, etc.). And again, I don’t disagree, it’s a bad thing to be for exactly that reason. But it’s also a different thing than being explicitly a right wing authoritarian fascist like Trump is.

            • meco03211@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              She’s been endorsed by architects of the Iraq war and the US torture program.

              Because your daddy is worse in their eyes.

              • queermunist she/her@lemmy.ml
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                2 months ago

                If you find yourself agreeing with Dick Cheney on politics you might want to rethink your positions.

                He doesn’t like Trump because he’s a destabilizing element. He agitates the masses against him and does stupid shit for no reason that makes allies and adversarie alike stop trusting the US. He’s bad for business.

                Harris will be good for the empire. That’s it.

                • Passerby6497@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  If Dick Cheney told you he thought wearing a seatbelt was a good idea, you’d argue against him because clearly an idea is bad if a bad person has it.

                  Evaluate an argument on its merits, regardless of who endorses it.

                • barsquid@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  What if you find yourself agreeing with Repubs that you should vote for third parties over a Dem? Or is that different because saying so doesn’t support the pro-MAGA campaigning you are here for?

        • blackbelt352@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          If by right wing you mean not strictly anti-capitalist, sure, at the end of the day shes not going to ovsrthrow capitalism. Still the policies and protections she wants to enact is the furthest left we’ve gone in multiple lifetimes. The last time we’ve had any kind of policy proposal like hers was likely FDR.

          • GlobalCompatriot@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            FDR proposals, which directly came from a socialist, actually helped the working class. Our wages suck, our labor conditions sucks, our future prospects sucks, and we keep getting told everything is fine. She and democrats are not progressive in action, only in lip service.

        • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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          2 months ago

          Do those accounts include the one where she just called for legalizing pot?

          Or is that a Right position in your mind?

          • GlobalCompatriot@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            You mean like Biden did 4 years ago? That’s a carrot to lead you to the ballot that they have no intention of implementing

    • some_guy@lemmy.sdf.org
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      2 months ago

      If you wrote this election into a political drama ten years ago, it’d get rejected as not believable.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        True story I have told so many times…

        Right after the 2016 election the NY Times assembled a panel of all the creators of the top TV political dramas. House of Cards, West Wing, Scandal, Veep…

        Every creator said the same thing. If they’d had a character say that they “liked soldiers who didn’t get captured” the networks and advertisers would have demanded that character be shown as hated by all Americans and voted out by the next episode.

        Meanwhile you have MAGooswho also fly the black POW/MIA flag next to their Trump flag

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        I was against Biden stepping down because I figured there’d be a stampede of Dems fighting for the nomination.

        I never dreamed they’d all line up behind the Black woman who didn’t win any primaries.

        Like you said, reality does what it wants and pays no attention to the script.

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        lol! Yes, yes I have.

        I’ll see and raise you. “The Porkchoppers” and “The Fools In Town Are On Our Side,” both by Ross Thomas.

        Thomas was a Washington reporter turned crime novelist. The first book is about a Union election and the second is about an attempt to clean up a small Southern city by making the corruption so bad that even the pimps will vote for reform.

    • WhiteOakBayou@lemmy.world
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      2 months ago

      ::: spoiler Yeah but not until he pushes Maggie Haberman in front of a subway. That will be the turning point for me. :::

      • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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        2 months ago

        That reference eludes me. If it’s from HOC, forgive me; haven’t watched either version in a while.

        • Soulg@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          I think it’s referring to the internet joke. In gifs of crashes/falls/other assorted bodily injury, if the person’s shoes fly off, then they probably died. If not, probably alive.

        • Regrettable_incident@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          Hillary Clinton being picked up and thrown in a car by one of her bodyguards when she seemed a little faint. Much of the internet concurred “The shoe come off - she dead.”

          • Dagwood222@lemm.ee
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            2 months ago

            Indeed. Hilary did eleven hours of grilling over Benghazi and never broke a sweat.

            Donnie gets the vapors having to debate Harris.

      • Alex@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        FPTP-voting was created by wealthy romans to benefit wealthy romans, that anyone uses this system today is just bonkers to me and probably why this comparison of yours is not so far removed at all.

  • Soup@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    The evening began to take a different trajectory when a man appeared to faint in the crowd. Trump paused his remarks. Attendees fanned the man and began to sing “God Bless America.” As the man waited for medical help, Trump mused: “While we’re waiting. So we had a beautiful evening. And I don’t know if they could get this song up quickly, but if they could work really quickly backstage while we’re waiting. ‘Ave Maria.’” The song began to play.

    Brother what in the fuck is going on anymore.

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      That’s honestly tame compared to the rest of the town hall

      At the end, he made it sound like he was done and going to wrap up, said thank you and then he… just stood there for 39 minutes noding to music

      Oh also he said “does anyone else want to faint too” after someone fainted

      He also told people to vote on January 5th instead of election day (Nov 5th)

      • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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        2 months ago

        That honestly sounds like he cant recenter himself, which if true means he may not be alive much longer. My great great aunt wasnt able to recenter herself and died within a couple days from that point. Mind you he could stay in a coupletely alucid state for who knows how long, it is kinda random.

        • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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          2 months ago

          It could be that he’s tired, old, and really fucking lazy. He wants to be in front of his crowd as it indulges his pathetic need for attention but he just can’t be bothered to meet them halfway by trotting out the same old lies so he just stands there, shuffling a little to some music while they bask in his magnificence.

          • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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            2 months ago

            Honestly Trump is such a weird bastard that its pretty much impossible to tell, could be either or really. But theres just this gut feeling I have that Trump is breaking down and is fast approaching the Reaper. Especially given that his actions are getting more random, there was a pattern in it before even if it was comparable to my sleeping habits, but now it just seems scattered like the pattern is still there but its drifting and becoming disconnected.

            • IchNichtenLichten@lemmy.world
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              2 months ago

              I’m not going to argue that he’s in decline but I’d argue that trying to remotely diagnose him isn’t helpful.

              He ran for President, he won - Trump happy.

              He ran again and lost - Trump not happy but rigged election!

              Now he’s running yet again and it’s close but he’s losing, crowd sizes are smaller, he’s old and tired, legal issues are piling up, and so on - Trump starting to lose his shit.

                • Tyfud@lemmy.world
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                  2 months ago

                  I think the issue is, we all want you to be right. But we’ve been let down by situations like this before. So none of us want to get our hopes up again.

      • EmpathicVagrant@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        Don’t forget a second person fainted as well.

        Folks fanning themselves while he dances and leans while music plays because he didn’t pay for Air conditioning

        • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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          2 months ago

          Did they actually, medically faint, or did they do that Evangelical Revival ‘faint’, like the ‘spirit’ overwhelmed them? If 2 people medically fainted, it seems like something was wrong with the venue (too many bodies, not enough air con), but based on the crowd’s response (eta: singing God Bless America at them), it kinda feels like the latter.

            • LillyPip@lemmy.ca
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              2 months ago

              I did, yes. I was just commenting on the crowd’s reaction of singing a national hymn at them, and how that reminded me of revival meetings. Yes, he’s famously cheap.

  • zcd@lemmy.ca
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    2 months ago

    His team is doing a Weekend at Bernie’s hide-the-dementia dance until the election

    • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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      2 months ago

      Think his team is more so afraid of making his mental decline even more obvious after his town hall yesterday. He cut if off early, said “who wants to listen to questions” and “let’s listen to music” followed by an early wrapping up. Sounded like he was going to leave, but he just didn’t. He stood on stage for 39 minutes of him nodding on stage to music

      https://www.washingtonpost.com/politics/2024/10/14/trump-music-sways-town-hall/

      • thisorthatorwhatever@lemmy.world
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        2 months ago

        39 minutes…that’s really troubling. It’s not like 1 song or 2 short songs, to take a few impromptu questions as people filled out. That’s almost an hour of some sort of severe breakdown.

        • usernamesAreTricky@lemmy.mlOP
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          2 months ago

          His team was telling him to take more questions on the teleprompter and he still just stood there

          (Photo from the Washington Post article)

          • givesomefucks@lemmy.world
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            2 months ago

            I always knew his teleprompter wasn’t just lines to a prewritten speech.

            They literally have people that type messages to him in real time, but they can’t put a lot up there so he just gets vague topics and rambles about it, then when a new message pops up he changes immediately to that.

        • vaultdweller013@sh.itjust.works
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          2 months ago

          39 minutes is basically a whole power metal album, I should know I listen to Sabaton, Hulkoff, and Tyr. Thats a long fucken time.

          • ArxCyberwolf@lemmy.ca
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            2 months ago

            Beast in Black would have been a far better use of that time than anything Trump played, that’s for sure.

  • Itdidnttrickledown@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Dementia is kinda like that. Its there and causes problems that can be masked til one day the problems are not something that can be kept hidden.

  • SelfProgrammed@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Somebody should tell him the last debate aired with “new smell-o-vision technology” and see if it’s possible for his face to lose any more color.

  • BradleyUffner@lemmy.world
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    2 months ago

    Leave the poor guy alone! He probably just wants to spend some time by himself swaying creepily to his favorite music.