2024 ELECTION THREAD
The next presidential race will be here soon! Please see current Bovada odds. Thoughts?
I wouldn't say that growing up as the daughter of a university professor and a lab researcher qualifies as growing up in the midst of "generational wealth."
We don't have much data but, presumably, shouldn't Harris father come from decent money just because he was able to study in London and then at Berkley being Jamaican? how does a 20 y old Jamaican in 1958 manage to get to study in London without very significant for the time (ie top5% at the very least in Jamaica) family money? maybe there were free programs or something i am not aware about
back in my 20s when i was still a smoker i was standing on an empty outdoor train platform in nj waiting for the train to take me into nyc
i was the only person there
literally just a concrete platform next to the tracks - no structure, nothing, just a trash can, a bench, and a ticket vending machine and not a single person in sight
so i'm standing there smoking and waiting for the train, i see one coming and walk over to the trash can and put it out and toss it in
train pulls up but the conductor only stopped to yell at me for smoking at a "train station" i'm a bit flabbergasted - say i had no idea, i thought we were outdoors and didn't realize you couldn't
he then refused to let me board the train and said i'd need to take the next - i tried pleading with him that i honestly had no idea about the rule but he kept telling me that i was lucky he didn't call the police on me
so i had to stand and wait until the next train, which as you can probably guess by the lack of people at this one meant it wouldn't be for another hour or so because it was during off peak times
was absolutely livid about that
yes, smoking is disgusting
yes, smoking causes massive public health problems
but we take it way too far - like how in most cities you can't smoke within a certain amount of feet of a building entrance, which means there's literally nowhere you can legally smoke
all of this is new too, in my lifetime you could smoke on planes, distinctly recall the smoking/non smoking schtick whenever we went to a restaurant, being able to smoke in bars, etc and now you can't even smoke outside the door of thoses places
just wild how we did some nice common sense things like no smoking on planes and restaurants and made it to where you can't smoke on a concrete slab outdoors when nobody is around you
meanwhile, obesity, which causes far more harm and doesn't even have a specific tax which pays for some of it is all about body positivity
but we take it way too far - like how in most cities you can't smoke within a certain amount of feet of a building entrance,
Take a few steps from the door so the smoke doesn't come into the bldg.
Also don't take your last big hit and walk back in the bldg before exhaling.
Not too difficult to be just a little considerate of others.
One of the best lines from tonight's DNC speeches is when Michelle Obama said this about Harris:
"She understands that most of us will never be afforded the grace of failing forward. We will never benefit from the affirmative action of generational wealth."
Yeah it’s pretty crazy to go through the past republican nominees:
Trump: inherited 9 or 10 figs
Romney : Dad was governor
McCain: Navy destroyer named after his grandfather and dad.
W Bush: lol
You have to go back to Dole to get a non affirmative action candidate.
back in my 20s when i was still a smoker i was standing on an empty outdoor train platform in nj waiting for the train to take me into nyc
i was the only person there
literally just a concrete platform next to the tracks - no structure, nothing, just a trash can, a bench, and a ticket vending machine and not a single person in sight
so i'm standing there smoking and waiting for the train, i see one coming and walk over to the trash can and put it out and toss it in
train pulls up but the conductor
I took a train this summer in italy and every stop i went to the little stairs to vape and that was it. People working on the train did the same, as well as others on the train (to vape or smoke).
Once in the 6 occasion a karen told me to actually step out, staying on the stairs while puffing toward the exterior wasn't enough. That was the extent of the rule enforcement. Ofc the next time karen wasn't there and i was back on the stairs (too hot outside, train had AC).
That's just an example but it matters for freedom.
Other examples can be mask mandates, you can imagine how much they were enforced in Italy for adults in the streets or in private places, imagine putting the mask on when you stand up from the table at the restaurant to pay and stuff like that. Only a drone would comply with that nonsense, and most italians aren't drones.
Btw i strongly disagree that smoking causes "massive public health problems". Health is a private matter, people who smoke have worse health, that's it. You can't aggregate health and claim it's public, same as if you take 100 people private assets and sum them togheter they don't become "public assets". They are private assets.
The idea that your own personal health is "public health" is horrific, collectivist, and false. "public health" can exist as a concept if we mean "water being contaminated can cause random people problems" and approach that as a "public" problem, but not the reserve, individual private actions that only harm the person doing those actions never become "public"
I finally found the reason why not having to pay taxes on tips won't matter for a lot of people.
'The problem, economists say, is “no tax on tips,” as Trump dubbed it, would probably not help many of the food servers that voters think of when they hear the idea.
“I don’t think it will change things in any meaningful way, in large part because many of the people who get tips don’t pay taxes. They don’t make enough money to pay [income] taxes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analytics, an economic research and financial modeling organization.'
My guess is that even for those that do have to pay taxes it would save mostly just 10% of the tips.
Yeah it’s pretty crazy to go through the past republican nominees:
Trump: inherited 9 or 10 figs
Romney : Dad was governor
McCain: Navy destroyer named after his grandfather and dad.
W Bush: lol
You have to go back to Dole to get a non affirmative action candidate.
Seems the move for Republicans is to be rich and get elected.
The move for Dems is to be poor, grift the system as President, and then become rich.
I finally found the reason why not having to pay taxes on tips won't matter for a lot of people.
'The problem, economists say, is “no tax on tips,” as Trump dubbed it, would probably not help many of the food servers that voters think of when they hear the idea.
“I don’t think it will change things in any meaningful way, in large part because many of the people who get tips don’t pay taxes. They don’t make enough money to pay [income] taxes,” said Mark Zandi, chief economist with Moody’s Analyti
I tried to explain why even if they are evading taxes right now for a decent amount, this is false.
1) more and more tips are paid by credit cards, that's far harder to avoid taxes on. The restaurant will need to wire you your part and you have a transaction in your favor, from your employer, with traceability.
2) If you can declare all of them without paying taxes on them, YOU CAN AFFORD CREDIT, which you can't with the base salary. You can get a mortgage, a car loan, and so on. Huge difference.
https://www.theguardian.com/books/articl...
Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says
Number of people shocked by this: 0
https://www.theguardian.com/books/articl...
Vladimir Putin manipulated Donald Trump’s ‘ego and insecurities’, book says
Number of people shocked by this: 0
I'm really surprised the dems aren't pushing the "look, this is what people who actually worked with/for him last time are saying about him" line a lot harder. Should be plastering those quotes on billboards IMO.
I'm really surprised the dems aren't pushing the "look, this is what people who actually worked with/for him last time are saying about him" line a lot harder. Should be plastering those quotes on billboards IMO.
They can't, Harris has one of the highest ever turnout rates among people who worked for her, they risk insane backfiring.
92% turnover in her VP office
They can't, Harris has one of the highest ever turnout rates among people who worked for her, they risk insane backfiring.
92% turnover in her VP office
Do people who worked for Harris say terrible things about her?
There was a whole bit on colbert or daily show (both?) about things Trumps former cabinet said about him.
I think pretty much everyone knows who Trump is at this point. I don't think anything like that is a surprise or moves the needle
"The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in 2023 and early 2024 than previously reported, a sign that cracks in the labor market are more severe — and began forming earlier — than initially believed.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department said that monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down from the previously reported pace of about 242,000 jobs — a downward revision of about 28 percent."
Wasn't sure where to post this but this seems like quite the "oops."
AP: Former Trump officials are among the most vocal opponents of returning him to the White House
Former Defense Secretary Mark Esper has called him a “threat to democracy.” Former national security adviser John Bolton has declared him “unfit to be president.” And former Vice President Mike Pence has declined to endorse him, citing “profound differences.”
As Donald Trump seeks the presidency for a third time, he is being vigorously opposed by a vocal contingent of former officials who are stridently warning against his return to power and offering dire predictions for the country and the rule of law if his campaign succeeds.
It’s a striking chorus of detractors, one without precedent in the modern era, coming from those who witnessed first-hand his conduct in office and the turmoil that followed.
Source:
"The U.S. economy added far fewer jobs in 2023 and early 2024 than previously reported, a sign that cracks in the labor market are more severe — and began forming earlier — than initially believed.
On Wednesday, the Labor Department said that monthly payroll figures overstated job growth by roughly 818,000 in the 12 months that ended in March. That suggests employers added about 174,000 jobs per month during that period, down
Yeah that was a major f*** up by the BLS. Fortunately they found and reported the error before election day otherwise they would have been accused of intentionally falsifying the data for political purposes.
No, What's ****ed is the child undermining everything you did by pretending they had a difficult childhood so that they can be on the "right" side of politics. I see it happening all the time with the people I grew up with, and you see it now with Kamala Harris acting like she's some project baby.
