US Politics

“So there are some of the most brilliant people in Wall Street that
are saying that if President Trump doesn't win, you're going to have a
depression. I have to agree. I think that's true. Because I know how
bad these people are. You know, they like to say that they did this
and that. You saw the seven trillion that they said it was me for
seven trillion. It wasn't me. It was them. They said that I had
inflation. They took over 9% in inflation. No, no, I had 1% inflation.
I had actually no inflation because if you look at the categories, we
had just about no inflation. But I had a very minor-- I actually had a
positive inflation. It was a perfect number. Because you don't want
zero. I mean, I'm not going to give you a whole course on economics.
But you don't want zero. 1% 1.4% is great. You want a little bit
because you don't want to have deflation. Deflation is, in many ways,
even worse. I had a perfect number right around the 1% number. It was
perfect. And to show you, it stayed there for two years. And then he
did all of the different borrowings that he did. And then he did so
many things wrong. Every time he would do it, I'd say big mistake. And
don't forget they sell hats. And they sell stories. Trump was right
about everything. I happened right about a lot.”

https://x.com/jimstewartson/status/1821625116931059836

The crazy thing is, if you read it as a paragraph it's fucking nuts, but if you watch the video and turn your brain off/don't try to logically process more than one sentence at a time, it sounds real convincing. And because he talks so slowly it kind of makes you forget what he said three sentences ago so you process his fingers circling around more than you do the fact that he's just said one, no, one point four, two in the span of ten seconds.

This. He is brilliant at this. It reminds me of Derren Brown getting money from losing tickets at the dog track. In the end you just give up and go with whatever he says.

RFK Jr deciding it's time to go for a bite with convicted child abuser Scott Ritter.... basically a day or so before Ritter got arrested again. Lets see how friendly Trump is with him now. Ritter was already stopped from leaving the US to go to Russia.

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I think I have said this before, but I find it fascinating as I think it is almost unfiltered stream of consciousness.

If you can get some context from elsewhere, it's fairly direct steps from one thought to another, but there are rarely any internal checks that most people consider essential (but carry out automatically):

• whether a branching idea should be considered at all

• prioritisation of ideas (or even ability to store more than one or two simple ideas in the 'foreground')

• considering whether an idea should be spoken at all, further processed or dropped

It's kind of like his brain is a single core CPU with very limited storage that can only be flushed to voice.

This makes it similar to output of a basic natural language generation algorithm, e.g. using a Markov chain.

Yesterday reminded me of all those COVID press briefings he did. Ramblings about "shining a light into the body" and drinking bleach. All from the standpoint of someone just asking questions. Brilliant questions of course. Trump off script is a wild ride.

Trump off script is a wild ride

Years ago, this appealed to a large number of voters who were overwhelmed by a sensationalist media and hysterical right wing party constantly harping on about what is and isn’t politically correct, and how that is or isn’t a sign of impending doom for America. Hopefully the electorate has had enough of hollywood in the White House, and will vote to reestablish sensible governance instead of drama.

That’s the hope. The reality, seen from my soapbox, is that Trump has the advantage because the Maga crowd are going to play every card in their deck to avoid losing this election, and they’ve had years to get everything in place. Harris-Walz are energising a lethargic dem base, but they need more than just their base voters to win.

He's been drinking lava lamps again:

Trump: “Kamala Harris. You know, it's interesting, nobody really knows
her last name if you ask people ‘Do you know her last name?’ Nobody
has any idea what it is. Harris, it's like Harris. I don't know how
the hell did this happen”

https://x.com/RpsAgainstTrump/status/1822119032239075602

This makes it similar to output of a basic natural language generation algorithm, e.g. using a Markov chain.

He speaks by using autocomplete.

It's kind of like his brain is a single core CPU with very limited storage that can only be flushed to voice.

Oh, that's good. Good description, I mean, obviously.

A semi-interesting thing to reflect on.

It was cited by many, including in this thread, that there was no point replacing Biden, as the other options were less popular, and polled worse head to head against Trump.

The subsequent reframing of Harris (insurgent, exciting new candidate, who is a breath of fresh air, instead of unpopular, irrelevant veep), and the bounce in polling shows that the prior polling was largely immaterial. The wider point is that polling on counter factuals is flawed.

Despite the above, it is a long way from now to polling day and this election is a toss-up. Don't believe anyone trying to confidently predict the result at this stage.

I see this and my mind just imagines a bunch of comments from blonde middle aged women whose profile picture is a selfie with sunglasses saying "That's so true LOL!"

Interviewer making Vance squirm:
https://x.com/clarencehilljr/status/1822714620806864979

The entertainment value of this stuff is just amazing. Better than both the first and second time around. I was disappointed for a second that Noem didn't make the cut, but Vance delivers .

Now this is the kind of reassurance i need...

https://www.instagram.com/p/C-kyMagOBlu/?hl=en&img_index=1

Kaitlan Collins for president. Even her left eyebrow is more competent than the entire Republican party.

How much makeup is that man wearing?

Under any other circumstance I'd be the first to cheer on a heterosexual man experimenting with make up. But in Vance's case it looks so much like one of these achieve X using this one weird trick ideas.
I am reminded of these pick up artist that were around 10+ years ago, where a particular kind of hat was meant to practically hypnotise women into going to bed with you.

That's the thing, it looks like experimenting. And the outcome is weird.
Also agree regarding make up, but with him it somehow screams fragile male ego.

Surely people going on telly usually get make up, just his visagist is less talented?

I doubt that's the reason. Sure, there's some magic the TV people do to counter the effect of strong lighting, but Vance's eyeliner has been pretty consistent over a number of different appearances, including stage events.

Fair enough, this vid is the first I've seen of him.

If you haven't seen them there a couple of pictures puporting to be Vance in (not very good) drag, in heavy eyeliner whilst he was at Yale.

By all accounts he was a bit of an ally (delivering baked goods to a friend who was recovering from top surgery ) who is now spewing the most hateful shit in pursuit of the MAGAs.

Did anyone notice Donald had a lisp last night?

He's an "interesting" study in whether a lot of the people at the top of the tree are true believers or just looking for power/money and are cosplaying racist, anti-lgbtqi, misogynistic shitheads.

I honestly feel Vance is the latter. He's found a way to get that payday and he's going to do whatever it takes to climb the greasy pole.

Edit - arguably that makes him worse, I know