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kelly windsor's avatar

My theory is that the Dems bullied and censored everyone so hard they had no way to track how many people actively loathed them.

“The crop yields are excellent, Commissar!”

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Gadabout's avatar

Great point! A coworker just posted a photo of his red white and blue colored lights around his house and I instantly wondered if he’d be censored for that by his HOA…are the days of being bullied for merely flying an American flag over, do you think?

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

I was chicken to place Trump sign in my yard

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Paul Harper's avatar

No shame in that - these people are maniacs.

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BookWench's avatar

I never do that!

I never put political bumper stickers on my car, either.

The Party of Joy can be quite destructive at times.

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ktrip's avatar

Wise- I had a colleague get her car keyed for having a Lazio for NY sticker on it in Suburban LI New York in 2000- I never put a bumper sticker on my car again after that happened to her.

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kelly windsor's avatar

I decided not to wear my US Rowing hat this morning because it has a tiny flag on it. Crazy but also not.

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kelly windsor's avatar

Hard to say. There’s so much self censorship, too, depending on where you live. It does seem like people may be more willing to express themselves now that they realize they have a LOT of company.

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Gadabout's avatar

The same people who said it was racist to fly an American flag because it might hurt the feelings of some immigrants sure don’t mind hurting my feelings by calling me racist/misogynist/fascist. There aren’t enough cursewords in my vocabulary for them. My instincts are to be nice and to try to get along but these people don’t deserve that but I suppose they really are mostly just stupid instead of malevolent.

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Rick S's avatar

Well sure but the relentless gaslighting matters over time when repeatedly shown to be wrong.

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Jane in Michigan's avatar

I can hardly wait! I love Mondays now!

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Tardigrade's avatar

And Fridays.

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Jane in Michigan's avatar

Absolutely!!

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Jim M's avatar

Okay... elderly man here. Trump won, and now we need to influence his policies... well, the powerful Indie journalists have to; I'm merely a subscriber.

To ME, the biggest and most long term threat to Americans' well being is the tremendous consolidation of companies in our economy. A LOT of these megacorps need breaking up, and I'm not just talking about Google & Amazon. If you're not familiar w/ this topic, check out the substack by Matt Stoeller titled BIG.

Yes, the censorship industrial complex needs to be wiped off the face of the earth. But immediately after that is the gross ripping off of America by Wall Street funded companies that are determining who gets to own a drug store, who gets to start up a Vet practice, etc etc.

I think we need to start a movement to SAVE LENA KHAN. If she's not locked in at the FCC b4 inauguration I fear all will be lost.

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@CLJ3's avatar

The deficit needs to be brought under control and then whittled down over the coming years. The % of tax revs going to debt service is out of hand. My own simple view is at some point soon a recession will be called and likely back dated, but that's a piano that will rest on the new admin fair or not so it will need to be dealt with.

Ending the endless spend on wars, immigration, tax policy (leads head towards a flat tax), massive waste at the Federal level to be solved will all help. Hopefully someone reasonable like Ritchie Torres for the Dems gets elevated in the House regardless of who wins control and constructive dialogues become a thing again in Congress.

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Blissex's avatar

«To ME, the biggest and most long term threat to Americans' well being is the tremendous consolidation of companies in our economy. A LOT of these megacorps need breaking up»

Who is going to do this?

The political, intellectual and media class "sponsored" by those megacorps, especially those from Wall Street? https://www.senate.gov/artandhistory/art/resources/graphic/xlarge/38_00392.jpg

The middle class who are largely corrupted by easy Fed/Treasury "supported" capital gains on property and on the stocks of those megacorps?

http://www.enterstageright.com/archive/articles/0903/0903norquistinterview.htm

«The growth of the investor class -- those 70 per cent of voters who own stock and are more opposed to taxes and regulations on business as a result -- is strengthening the conservative movement. [...] But going into November, what actually saved it for the Republicans was the investor vote, which went heavily R. [...] Now if you say we're going to smash the big corporations, 60-plus percent of voters say "That's my retirement you're messing with. I don't appreciate that". [...] And in 2002, voters said, “We're sorry about the seals and everything but we really got to get the stock market up.”»

PS The point I am always trying to make is that to change things one must persuade *some* the winners of the current system, in particular the middle class, that they can make larger or more secure gains by no longer voting for bigger housing and stock prices. Otherwise it is pointless wishful thinking to imagine that the current system can change just because (without a collapse).

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Jim M's avatar

Oh God, I have to stay off line! LOL But I can't let this comment go by w/o praising its quality. Great, GREAT take!

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S B T Larzier's avatar

We need to protect mom-and-pop limited liability corporations (LLCs).

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Ed Carapezza's avatar

Lead the way brothers!! “It’s merely a flesh wound”

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Tardigrade's avatar

Wonder if you guys would be interested in mentioning the 10-20 million total-vote discrepancy between 2020 and 2024 that's been making the rounds. I saw one news source (Tangle) that claimed it was simply due to vote counting for this year not being finished.

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Paul Zrimsek's avatar

That's pretty much it. California is almost done counting 2020 votes by now <g> but 2024 has a ways to go.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

The Babylon Bee (paraphrasing): "Democrats concede Trump won 2020 election, is ineligible to serve."

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Susan G's avatar

With all respect to Paul's response, it cannot be explained. Trump got about the same number of votes in '20 and '24, Biden received 81+ million in 2024. What do you think? I know what I think.

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Tardigrade's avatar

I don't think it matters which candidate got how many votes; it's the TOTAL number of votes cast. If there were indeed 10 million more total votes in 2020 than any other year, that means one of two things:

1. There was cheating on a massive scale.

2. 10 million people felt excited enough to vote in 2020 who had never voted before, and then went back to the couch for 2024.

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Susan G's avatar

So which is correct - or am I putting you on the spot? I'll just say it, I think it proves the massive cheating.

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Tardigrade's avatar

Nothing is proved yet. See my reply to spiderbaby.

This does NOT mean that I don't think there was a possibility of cheating. Jumping to conclusions can be a product of wishful thinking, which is dangerous when serious accusations are being flung about.

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Susan G's avatar

No, I think this because I reasearched the 2020 Georgia election, focusing on the drop boxes and the NGOs driving mail voting. Facts are not wishful thinking.

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BookWench's avatar

There is a lot of evidence of cheating in 2020.

Check out Gateway Pundit, which has the most extensive coverage on the issue that I've seen.

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Gallahad's avatar

Don't short change Joe Biden. He was an absolutely Dynamic Campaigner in 2020 (from his basement) and that alone explains 99% of the discrepancy.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

What are the odds? Two: slim and none

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@CLJ3's avatar

It's hard to imagine those 10m lets assume inflicted with TDS just decided to stay home.

Some subset of this 10m probably flipped after taking stock of what worked well these last four years (nothing). So let's say this accounts for half of the 10M. That still leaves 5M for 'further discussion'.

Those who oppose ID's to vote ONLY of course have something to lose. Never hear about 'rights violations' when IDs are needed at hotels, rental cars, flights, dr offices, at the bank to cash a check, on and on. Just utter nonsense.

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Susan G's avatar

I had to show ID at my local library.

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Kate Cahill's avatar

I had to show it to get a mammogram!

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

“ you know, it’s racist to expect black people to have id “. The insult of the century.

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@CLJ3's avatar

only racist to have id to vote. you don't see 'folks' twisting in their shorts over id for the 30 other things for which it's required

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rtj's avatar

If i had any money i'd guess that a solid chunk of those missing balllots came from Indies. Who could well have showed up for Biden in '20, but said fuck it this year.

Could also be many ballots that left top of the ticket blank but voted downballot.

Lotta Dems who not only don't like Harris, but are mightily pissed off at thier party for being denied a primary. They might have sat it out too.

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Kate Cahill's avatar

i agree this is a possible, but-- I dunno- were those same folks THAT stoked to get of couch and go vote for "Uncle Joe" in 2020??

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rtj's avatar

Well, I voted Green in '20, nfw was I voting for Joe. But I think a lot of people were stoked to vote against Trump.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

2020 was a huge spike upward for Democrats compared to a relatively steady turnout number through many previous elections.

There's a big "Trump/Elon cheated using Starlink" thought bubble floating around on Twixter.

I don't think they're taking into account how odd that Biden vote spike looks when placed against previous elections.

Russia also figures in some scenarios.

For all the "novone can dizzpute ze voting" that's come out of the DNC since the last inaugural ball the reality is that nobody trusts these elections now.

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Susan G's avatar

Can you explain how Starlink could alter vote totals? I just can't follow this logic. Nor can I easily stomach the rank hypocrisy.

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Paul Zrimsek's avatar

Signals from Starlink satellites could have been used to hack the Jewish orbital mind-control lasers. Until we get the public letter from 73 senior intelligence officials, we won't know what Putin's role in the plot was.

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Susan G's avatar

That explains everything.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

I was going to that….

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Spiderbaby's avatar

I can explain nothing. Hypocrisy isn't a big enough word. These people literally spent 4 years saying anyone questioning a US election is a terrorist just so they could start questioning an election the minute they lose.

Cory Booker & Newsom & Pritzker are all yammering about "a resistance" to gain political points with the hypnotized faithful. They all think they're French partisans risking capture. The only problem with that is no one is looking for them. And there is no concentration camp hanging over their heads. It's consequence free resistance for the pampered.

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Susan G's avatar

Great analysis of the resistance. Thanks for trying to explain the inexplicable.

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BookWench's avatar

"The only problem with that is no one is looking for them."

Hahahahahahaha!

They are so irrelevant, & so pathetic, with all their screeching.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

But, if they persist, we will be forced to ask for their papers..

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BookWench's avatar

I asked a lady on Notes, but she just told me that Elon & Putin concocted a scheme to manipulate the totals. Putin was former KGB, she carefully explained, so he has "access."

I am not making this up.

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@CLJ3's avatar

of course this nonsense would be promoted by those who maintained the process is tight last time around and how dare one challenge this operationally tight, controlled, auditable process.

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Tardigrade's avatar

I don't like to jump to conclusions. Personally, I want to make sure that there *were* millions of anomalous extra votes in 2020, no matter who for. Evidence of those anomalous votes would then justify further investigation.

'2020 was a huge spike upward for Democrats compared to a relatively steady turnout number through many previous elections.' One conceivable explanation for that is that those voters were excited enough to vote for Biden that year. *I'm not saying that was the case*. You have to consider all the possibilities. I look at it like analyzing an epidemiological study.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

I don't disagree. My initial reaction when I saw much liberal Twixter shrieking about a stolen election was, "why don't you Einsteins wait until the votes are counted."

Then I started thinking that it would be hilarious if Dems, in their zeal to prove Trump stole the 2024 election, actually proved that their team stole the 2020 election.

I'm still at the "wouldn't it be hilarious" stage.

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Tardigrade's avatar

I think that's a healthy attitude.

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BookWench's avatar

Yes!

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

You mean like studying Covid? Oh no

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Blissex's avatar

«Personally, I want to make sure that there *were* millions of anomalous extra votes in 2020, no matter who for.»

In 2020 nationally the Republican votes went up by 18% and the Democratic votes went up by 20%, so Biden won. But I guess neither party machine is very willing for anybody to look for “anomalous extra votes”.

BTW these were the votes in several recent presidential elections in California, note the colossal surge for Biden in 2020 and the merely yuuuge surge for Trump the same year. Nothing to see here... :-)

2024: 6.7m Harris, 4.5m Trump

2020: 11.1m Biden, 6.0m Trump.

2016: 8.8m Rodham-Clinton, 4.5m Trump.

2012: 7.8m Obama, 4.8m Romney

2008: 8.2m Obama, 5.0m McCain

2004: 6.7m Kerry, 5.5m GW Bush

2000: 5.1m Gore, 4.6m GW Bush

1996: 5.1m Clinton, 3.8m Dole

1992: 5.1m Clinton, 3.6m GH Bush

1988: 4.7m Dukakis, 5.0m GH Bush

The president of Guatemala commented on the USA election: “This is the kind of lawlessness you typically see in a corn & soybeans republic”. :-)

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@CLJ3's avatar

yup. in person, valid ID, one day, which should be designated a national holiday.

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BookWench's avatar

CA allows illegal aliens to vote, too.

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BookWench's avatar

Here is a link to Gateway Pundit's articles on vote fraud in 2020:

https://www.thegatewaypundit.com/?s=vote+fraud+2020

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BookWench's avatar

It's funny watching Dems discuss the discrepancies in the vote totals, between 2020 & 2022. They are real close to figuring out what happened, but they're not quite there. . .

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Shelley's avatar

#1. Becker, the proud owner of ERIC said we located 17 million new voters for the 2020 election, the most in the history of their organization. For comparison, they only found 5.7 million new voters in 2012, Obama's reelection.

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Shelley's avatar

#1. Becker, the proud owner of ERIC said we located 17 million new voters for the 2020 election, the most in the history of their organization. For comparison, they only found 5.7 million new voters in 2012, Obama's reelection.

You as well had Matt might be interested in this speech by Trump on his day one plan to stop censoring. It's long because it is comprehensive. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=EkIAtP8yddw

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Tardigrade's avatar

They're discussing that December 2022 campaign video that Trump made about free speech. It's excellent and we can only hope that he follows through on at least some of it.

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Shelley's avatar

And here are the rest of the videos:

https://www.donaldjtrump.com/agenda47

Although I have not read it, I wonder if the 2025 report put out by Heritage expands on these videos.

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Tardigrade's avatar

900 pages will no doubt have some overlap with what Trump has said, despite the fact that he said he had nothing to do with it, and has his own plans. Go ahead, dive right in.

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BookWench's avatar

#1 is the correct answer.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Not to mention, if you watch the election analyisis, both before and after election day, both D & R were focused on the now identified as "low propensity voter," for their getoutthevote efforts. 81 million votes. I guess there were no "low propensity" persons during a lockdown pandemic.

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BookWench's avatar

It's due to massive cheating in 2020, using all those mail-in ballots.

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Kurl Malone's avatar

I'm curious because I just moved out of Oregon in the last 2 years if you live where in person day of voting is the norm?

I never gave it much thought as Oregon has had mail in voting for at least 20 years.

First time voting in person ever this year for me.....

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BookWench's avatar

We’ve had mail-in ballots available for years, but I had always voted on Election Day until this year, when I got a mail-in ballot & dropped it off at an Early Voting Site, which I don’t recall them having in the past. I only voted with an early ballot this time because Maricopa County is such a wretched hive of scum & villainy when it comes to voting issues, that I didn’t want to risk it. In 2022, 60% of the voting machines here malfunctioned, some ballots (in Republican precincts) were too small to feed properly through the tabulators, pens were bleeding through to the other side of the paper. . . Total FUBAR.

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Maricopa County is incompetent. They are still counting, no?

Question: What is an early voting site? We vote early in our IL county, but have to go to the courthouse.

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BookWench's avatar

They are sprinkled throughout the cities. Some are in churches, some in schools.

Yes, I believe Maricopa County is STILL counting ballots. We’re like the Ralphie of the states here. “I’m counting!”

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Tardigrade's avatar

Utah too.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Nobody cheats in Utah.

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William Dean Thurmond's avatar

That’s not what two of my wives say.

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BookWench's avatar

Ha!

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Jim M's avatar

Seriously? Wow; I had NO idea this is the case.

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Michelle Dostie's avatar

And more.

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Blissex's avatar

«massive cheating in 2020»

In 2020 Trump's vote went up by 18% nationally and he was much surprised by that, and Biden's vote went up by 20% over "President" Rodham-Clinton. Even if it was a pandemic years. Amazing news from America!

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GB HeBe's avatar

Someone explain to me why president is decided in an evening of tabulation but we wait days for legislative counts? Everything is on a single ballot. Doesn't math up. Nobody does all hand count.

https://ballotpedia.org/Voting_methods_and_equipment_by_state

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Blissex's avatar

«but we wait days for legislative counts?»

Since most counties are "forever" D or R, votes only decide which local political clique (mob) within a party gets to make the most money from government office, which is far more important than deciding which party wins, so counting can be heavily contested.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Good question

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craazyman's avatar

Be nice, it takes a lot of time for some places to remember where they are while counting:

Biden votes: 1, 2, 3, 5, 8, 9, 10, 12, 14, 15, 16, 19, 21, 24

Trump votes: 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6, 4, 5, 6, 7, 8, 9, 7, 8, 9

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Patrick's avatar

It's a prime number thing.

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Notyours's avatar

I’m thinking Fibonacci.

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William Dean Thurmond's avatar

So in the movie Contact, Jody Foster was actually receiving Democratic votes beamed in from Alpha Centauri. That’s ballot harvesting, baby.

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DaveL's avatar

Zeno’s paradox.

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Eileen Thornton Renda's avatar

Maybe Matt and Walter can shame CA into speeding things up, lol!

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CTE's avatar

Nothing has been learned, even their Nostradamus polster Lichtman is just blaming racism and misogyny. Maybe this shouldn't be surprising, he needed a way to assuage his ego after all, but I thought they would have something better than just accusing the majority of the electorate of being bad people.

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BookWench's avatar

Their skewed polling, & their own political bias blinds them to the realities of how regular people really feel about issues. Plus, most of these talking heads probably don't even know any regular people. They're all still mystified that we're complaining about the price of groceries, after all.

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William Dean Thurmond's avatar

“Butter costs $7??”

Joe Scarborough

6 November

Morning Joe

MSNBC

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

Wow. Good points

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Paul Zrimsek's avatar

If racism and misogyny are such potent forces, I wonder how "opposing candidate is a woman" and "opposing candidate is a POC" got left off the keyring in the first place.

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Shelley's avatar

Results on elections night - Not a total shock when LAT and WaPo did not endorse before hand = they has the real polls.

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Glitterpuppy's avatar

They heard trump’s footsteps

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Malcolm Mead's avatar

Manchin and Sinema would never go for swapping Sotomayor for Kamalalala

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Sheila Dean's avatar

“The controversy surrounding the Texas social media law, initially signed in 2021, continues to unfold as it returns to the lower courts for further examination. This legislation, known as H.B. 20, compels platforms such as X, Facebook, Instagram, and YouTube to not only publish regular reports detailing removed content but also to establish a system for complaints and reveal their methods for moderating content. Ostensibly, the law aims to prevent these companies from banning users based on political opinions.”

https://reclaimthenet.org/texas-social-media-free-speech-law-faces-new-scrutiny-in-first-amendment-fight

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S B T Larzier's avatar

I was on Fcbk and Twit A LOT from 2011 to 2016. I got banned from both several times for being too opinionated. The last banning of each, I had run out of patience, permanently removed my accounts, and never went back. They pushed me into not giving a shit. They are not the be-all and end-all. I don’t miss them. They were such a time-sink.

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Sheila Dean's avatar

Can’t argue with that.

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S B T Larzier's avatar

They never told me why.

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Sheila Dean's avatar

Don't worry. God has other plans for your life.

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BookWench's avatar

Sounds unconstitutional to me.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

Can someone explain to me how cutting off all of your hair on camera and then looking at that camera when you're bald and saying, "Fuck the patriarchy," actually fucks the patriarchy?

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DarkSkyBest's avatar

Although, great merchandising opportunity ---- Flowbees for 4Bs!

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William Dean Thurmond's avatar

This could be a boon for Business Publishing: Forbes

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BookWench's avatar

Mental illness is a terrible thing.

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Spiderbaby's avatar

True.

But who knew it was so damn funny?

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@CLJ3's avatar

after further thought - it will make it easier to stick one's head back up one's @$$ - less friction.

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@CLJ3's avatar

ask the nimrod that did this.

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A Mostly Analog Life's avatar

Hello Racket News: Can you see to it that Matt and Walter's "America This Week" Friday feed gets uploaded to Apple Podcasts with regularity? It would be great if the Monday show could be uploaded as well - for those customers who listen off hours. Not sure if the platform of Monday's show lends itself to an audio file. In any case....I love whatever you guys have to offer - no matter the topic! Thank you.

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Judith Cohen's avatar

Can’t wait!

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Mark adams's avatar

Please support the crazy eyeballs of Coach Gruden on YouTube. He's just shy of 200k subscriber! Contact Pat Macaffee to get him un canceled!!!!

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