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Joined 3 years ago
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Cake day: June 15th, 2023

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  • I quit with the API bullshit but I first started realizing Reddit sucked when an admin threatened to ban me after I reported a fascist troll running a bunch of sockpuppets. The troll I guess was friends with a mod who was friends with this admin, I don’t really know what the deal was but the result was they got me in trouble for abusing moderation. I kept reporting the troll and their accounts eventually got nuked by Reddit a few weeks later, I was never banned or contacted by an admin again.



  • Multiple things contributed to the differences, I am not saying the sole difference comes down to winning or not winning the popular vote. Yes, a major factor in the difference is that 2016 Trump had some establishment folks keeping the train on the tracks to some extent. Do you think they would have felt as free to thwart Trump’s will if there wasn’t the cloud of his split victory over him compared to the scenario where he won a decisive victory that included that popular vote? The zeitgeist would have been totally different, the political capital that Trump had back then would have been much greater. Those establishment folks would have been both less likely to be selected to help run the show and those who were selected would have been less willing and able to act against Trump, corporate America would have been more willing to bend to his will in the way they did after 2024, etc. Everything that results from winning the popular vote is beneficial to Trump, so the simple logic is if you make a choice that contributes to Trump winning the popular vote you are inherently doing something that empowers Trump.




  • As I said, this is magical thinking. There is not a legal mechanism holding him in control if he loses the popular vote, and in no way did it reduce his power; he appointed three SCOTUS judges in his first term for fuck’s sake.

    The concept of a popular mandate is not magical thinking, and it doesn’t require a legal mechanism. You keep misrepresenting my point. Do you dispute that a more decisive victory provides more political capital to the winner? Do you dispute that winning both the popular vote and electoral college is a more decisive victory than winning the electoral college alone?

    Basic politics also says the person with the most votes wins an election, so toss it out if you’re trying to understand American politics. I’m also not sure you should be lecturing me about basic politics if you believe the checks on Trump are how many votes he got and not the other two branches of government

    I think you need to work on your reading comprehension, or read more carefully, or maybe you are not participating here in good faith, I don’t know. For the record, I do not believe that and never made that claim.

    If they “empowered him” by not voting blue in a state that went blue was always going to go blue, why can’t they disempower him by disapproving of him? Is it possibly because approval has nothing to do with what power a politician has, and that Congress and SCOTUS instead hold the reins to power and are simply letting it happen?

    No, it must be those dastardly people in blue states who simply didn’t vote hard enough!

    I am not sure if I follow this but yes, disapproving of Trump is to some extent inherently disempowering for Trump, of course. You can see how his capacity to enact his agenda has become increasingly challenged in certain regards due to the decline in his polling, for example. You have candidates he endorsed openly trying to distance themselves from him at this point. We are in a very different political environment now compared to last year. Are you suggesting that popularity doesn’t bring with it political capital?


  • I remember protestors and journalists where I live getting beaten, gassed, and arrested while Democrats did more performative shit, Trump incited a riot, and nobody faced any consequences. Why, what do you remember?

    You are missing the point being made. There is a difference in how American society behaved following 2016 compared to 2024, a factor in that difference is Trump losing the popular vote in 2016 but winning it in 2024. Trump has more power now in part because he won the popular vote and had less power back then in part because he lost the popular vote. This is basic politics, a more decisive victory confers greater power than a less decisive victory.

    Then don’t complain about voters you don’t want not voting for your candidate. It seems like focusing on winning only the votes of some Platonic ideal of an undecided voter instead of issues actually important to their base has done nothing but lead to Trump getting elected, but what do I know, I’m not a professional election loser.

    I don’t think I am complaining, I am describing the situation to dispute the idea that criticism of these third party voters is “moronic”, or whatever the original comment was. It isn’t moronic to be critical of people who made a bad decision that served to empower Trump. I never suggested anything about Platonic ideal undecided voters, it seems like you are reading lots of things into my comments that are not there. I get the impression that you are not really engaging with my points and just throwing whatever you can come up with back at me.


  • And what did winning the popular vote in 2016 do for Clinton?

    Do you not remember “the Resistance”? Have you not noticed the difference between how corporate America behaved following 2016 vs. now? There is this idea of a “mandate” that can help animate the implementation of the new regime, Trump having the popular vote win in 2024 to point at was a significant factor in how things played out after that election. If Trump had only won the Electoral College again he would have been less empowered by the election outcome.

    You also can’t have it both ways; if it’s so important to get every single vote even in deep blue states, then you have to take the concerns of these voters seriously and not just demand they perform for the party’s sake. If their votes are so necessary then they must be earned.

    I don’t understand this, it seems like a non sequitur to the point I was making. I am not arguing any of these things. It’s generally not a good use of limited campaign resources or political capital to target these kinds of voters, that would be a bad strategy when that money and effort could be much better spent trying to actually win via the Electoral College.



  • It’s a ridiculous assertion. Dr. Oz would obviously have been worse. As terrible as Fetterman is, Oz would have been in full lockstep with Trump and the Senate would be under even firmer control of the GOP right now. Trump could have been more successful legislatively if they had another Senator to make winning votes easier. If nothing else, it would have provided another seat they could use to let Senators like Collins and Murkowski do their performative BS on more votes so its easier for them to win re-election.




  • Bears, mountain lions, and coyotes. I’ve not seen a mountain lion with my naked eye yet though. They are all around the area so kind of unavoidable, even if you don’t see them you will find their poop, or with coyotes you hear them at night regularly. I’m cautious around all wild animals but not really afraid of them, the odds of being attacked are very slim. I think they should be left alone to do their thing, but I will make noise if necessary to scare them away. One annoying thing is having to take precautions with food when out in the wilderness since bears can be an issue, especially in a group it can be tough to deal with for a number of reasons.