Tariffs alone will probably lead to a very bleak outlook for Republicans in the midterm elections.

Oil and gas which need to be extracted from deep underground so we can burn them: a gift from God.

Wind and sunlight which come to us for free and never run out: somehow not a gift from God.

Back when I worked in an office I would put up badass president pics Fourth of July. Too lazy to find them, but stuff like Kennedy riding a robot unicorn on the moon, FDR in wheelchair themed power armor, Roosevelt gunning down big foot in a forest fire, etc.

At home, the only significant decorating I do is for Christmas. There’s enough misery out there, and I choose to embrace the joy and the appeal to the better side of our nature. So we have lights, fake candles, and so on, and we put up a tree that gets a new ornament or two every year which fills it with memories. And as a finishing touch we hang a banner declaring “All creatures will make merry under pain of death”

Let’s see how hungry those leopards are.

That’s not true. He also wants them to shoot protestors.

Trump was already a paranoid nutcase who fostered an atmosphere of chaos and betrayal the last time he was in office. Given the way his declining mental state has been making him even more hostile and unstable, I can’t imagine how bad it’s going to get this time around.

The moment Trump sets foot in the white house again, the economy becomes his problem. If he actually puts those tariffs in place, he will be causing immediate price hikes that will be felt by everyone. That alone would likely cause a massive backlash in the midterm elections.

Harris tried to run on protecting abortion rights, and saving democracy from Trump and Project 2025. Under other circumstances, that probably would have worked.

Unfortunately, she was the nominee for the incumbent party at a time when the vast majority of voters were unhappy with the economy. That’s a hard position to be in, and requires a compelling answer. She had a few token items for the agenda, but nothing that would address the larger issue of people feeling squeezed by inflation. Saying things are better now or going to be better soon doesn’t appease the voters who don’t feel better.

The horrible truth is, a large portion of the electorate would vote for the literal devil if he was running against an incumbent during a bad economy.

Elon’s going to get a shot at balancing the government’s budget. And I’m sure his approach will be similar to the way he handled Tesla’s budget. You know, gotta make deep cuts and lay off as many people as possible, while granting himself a bonus large enough to cover those jobs for decades.

Trump and the Republicans are about to make things worse for the vast majority of Americans. How much they actually accomplish will probably be at least somewhat limited by infighting and incompetence, But if they fulfill even a fraction of what the campaign promised (to say nothing of the project 2025 roadmap) there will be a lot more things for the people to be upset about.

For some, it’s just not paying attention and not being happy with the way things are going.

The judge’s ruling was on Krasner’s emergency motion to shut down the sweepstakes right away. There is still an underlying case on the merits of whether Musk’s giveaway is illegal under state gaming law.

Just to be clear, this wasn’t the judge ruling that it was legal, it was the judge deciding not to issue an emergency order immediately halting the lottery. I’m honestly not surprised given the fact that there is only a day left and the damage is already done.

“Our intent all along is to only provide compensation to registered voters and US citizens, and avoid any chance that we are somehow providing funds to foreign nationals or someone with ill-intent,” Young said.

Young, the super PAC’s treasurer, said the group received plenty of sign-ups from people who weren’t registered to vote – and those people “received a follow-up opportunity and were encouraged to check their registration status,” Young testified.

If there was any doubt that they were using this to get people to register to vote, this added detail should make it pretty clear. They were telling people who weren’t registered to register in order to get paid / enter a lottery.

Lotteries are specifically called out as illegal when used to incentivize voting or voter registration. By making a lottery only for registered voters, he is violating that law. The petition is a smoke screen, but it doesn’t actually negate the fact that this is a lottery for registered voters.

That’s why they switched to saying they were sponsors, they were trying to avoid lottery regulations. Unfortunately for them, you can’t make it legal retroactively by changing your story.

Just trying to hedge her bets. Doesn’t want to be fully against Trump if he wins, but wants to be able to say she warned about this if he loses and the party collapses into infighting. Just a rat getting in position to flee a sinking ship.

The department told the outlet that they apologize for his behavior and that Rodgers has received “received a written reprimand for a violation of the department’s social media policy and will remain on duty.”

Oh, he got a reprimand. Well that should take care of everything. I’m sure he’s learned a valuable lesson. Public trust restored.

You’re fabricating outrage at something that does not exist in the comic

The comment I was replying to was clearly talking about a pattern of behavior beyond what is in the comic.

The artist is making fun of the petty nonsense that people complain about.

Which is a pretty goddamn petty thing to complain about. How dare people express their opinions and dissatisfaction with anything that isn’t the end of the fucking world, right?

Yes, there are people who blow such things way out of proportion, but this comic does nothing to distinguish between reasonable responses to these issues and unreasonable ones, it just lumps them all together and tells everyone to shut the fuck up in the most condescending way possible.

It’s also being dismissive of real problems people face. It’s an excuse to not address problems here and now because bigger problems exist elsewhere. But you aren’t going to do a goddamn thing about those issues, so this implied triage is a lie. It’s just a way of trying to act morally superior while lacking empathy.

The whole first world problem concept implies everyone has it easy in first world countries. As though we don’t have poverty, mental health issues, crime, corruption, police brutality, abusive families, disease, loss of loved ones, and so on. There’s no shortage of problems anywhere.

And you know what, fuck this attitude of turning suffering into competition and mocking people for being bothered by things that aren’t life altering. There’s nothing wrong with a healthy expression of emotion when you are disappointed or irritated, as long as you aren’t taking it out on others. But being a snarky asshole to someone and judging them for having a bad day isn’t helping.

If you see someone frowning and your instinct is to tear them down rather than cheer them up, maybe you should take a good look at yourself and figure out what your fucking problem is.

He could give actual blowjobs on stage after getting the words “filthy whore” tattooed on his forehead and it wouldn’t crack the top ten things he’s done to drive away potential voters.

Harris holds on to the support of nearly all Democrats, with 97% saying they will support her and 0% saying they will support Trump.

But she also gets 5% of Republicans who say they will vote for her over Trump. Trump holds 89% of Republicans.

The poll shows a small universe of people who say they previously supported Trump and have now switched their vote to someone else.

Among those not supporting Trump, 16% say there was a time when they supported him, while 81% say they have never supported him. Another 3% are not sure.

This is a factor that very few polls ever look for. There are so many reasons to oppose Trump which transcend partisan politics. We’ve had so many Republicans endorse Harris, but you don’t see many polls looking for the voters that are making the same jump.

The implications are huge. Every voter that switches from Trump to Harris is a net gain of 2 votes. And if they are still registered Republicans, any early voting data will likely be interpreted with them in the Trump column until they are actually counted. And of course, any voter turnout efforts paid for by the Trump campaign will likely be turning these people out as well, which is just delightful.

We’ll see how accurate this is on Tuesday. But if Iowa really does go blue, it seems likely that it won’t be the only surprise that night.

All the recent talk of Epstein has been bringing back memories.