2024 USA Election: Wishin' and Hopin'

[MrFanti]

Safety in the big cities here: the NYC Mayor is about to go down for corruption and the mayor of Chicago is on the resident's shit list. Two DAs in CA have been booted, and another one that I can't recall of the top of my head. Unfortunately those three states still have off the rails governors. Nearly Every state has significant voter shift away from den to rep this year. Up to 20% in some states.

I don't think Chicago was expecting what they got in their current mayor after Lori Lightfoot.....

[fred41]

I don’t see why they wouldn’t have. He never ran as a moderate and it was quite evident he was in the pocket of the Teacher’s Union from the get go. He was, and still is, pretty obvious about it all.

[filghy2]

Here's two charts supporting my point that people are probably overstating the significance of Trump's victory.

The first shows that the voting swing was relatively small compared to past elections in which the White House changed hands.


The second shows that swing against the incumbent was relatively small compared to other national elections over the past two years. Incumbents (both left or right) have mostly been doing badly.

[blackchubby38]

[MrFanti]

I don’t see why they wouldn’t have. He never ran as a moderate and it was quite evident he was in the pocket of the Teacher’s Union from the get go. He was, and still is, pretty obvious about it all.

Oh I mean he went further left than even they anticipated when compared with Lori Lightfoot.....
One of the biggest complaints is from the Black community saying the current mayor treated immigrants better than homeless Chicago Blacks......

[Stavros]

Did the Americans vote for a 'second Revolution'? The actor best known for (like RFK) his gravel voice and a face that looks- and moves- like concrete, said this at the Florida golf club where Trump lives, referring first to one of his characters, 'Rocky'-

“Something was going to happen, this man was going to go through a metamorphosis and change lives. Just like President Trump.
“We’re in the presence of a really mythical character,” Stallone continued. “I love mythology. This individual does not exist on this planet. Nobody in the world could have pulled off what he pulled off, so I’m in awe.”
“And I’ll just say this, and I mean it,” Stallone went on. “When George Washington defended his country, he had no idea that he was going to change the world. Cause without him, you could imagine what the world would look like. Guess what? We got the second George Washington. Congratulations.”".
Sylvester Stallone calls Trump ‘the second George Washington’ in Mar-a-Lago warm-up speech

Set aside the fact that George Washington was a real man, not a myth, as well as the fact that his modesty sets him apart from Trump in the most obvious way, and you have the intriguing, if scary thought if Trump does get his nominations through their Senate confirmation hearings (other than those he gets in without that process), the impact could amount to a Revolution of some kind.

It would amount to a structural change, in which most important decisions on social and economic policy are made by States, not by the President or Congress, but also one in which rather than trust markets in a capitalist world, Trump's Federal Govt will make decisions on trade, notably on taxes and tariffs.

Oddly, the key here might be another attempt at Revolution in recent times, ie Brexit, and the unusual (because political) speech made this week in London by the Governor of the Bank of England, who has been forced to admit that the UK economy since Brexit and because of Brexit, has declined, and will continue to decline at the rate of 4% (though one also assumes most recent figures were skewed by the impact of Covid). He also pointed out that even without membership, the EU remains the major trading partner of the UK, not the US.
Bank of England boss says UK must 'rebuild relations' after Brexit - BBC News

Trump may very well succeed in some his cherished aims -nullifying all of the court cases he has lost, ending those still pending, and most of all, make as much money from the Presidency as he can. But yes he could preside over major structural changes to the US system of Govt, and also of the Rule of Law (Giuliani's contempt for the law is chutzpah but not surprising), but with the consequence that the economy, instead of being made great again, does not match the rhetoric -that in four years' time, the average American will be no better off; indeed, may be worse off, because Revolutions have a tendency to send economies into reverse -one also notes that the English, American, French, and Russian revolutions sparked wars designed to either spread the Revolution or stop it- and that Trump has no idea on this basis what he is doing, and I doubt that he cares.

The spite behind the rhetoric is a sad conclusion to a grubby campaign, but people are now so used to this collapse of decency in language, that the next 4 years, even if Trump only lasts for one or two of them, could be even uglier than it is now. With the final rider that for all the evidence of the damage Brexit has done to the UK economy, the current Labour Govt is struggling to make sense of our chronic problems -low productivity, low and currently zero growth in the economy, incompetence and even bankruptcy in local govt- so that it may take the US years to cope with the impact of Trump, if it ever does.

[Stavros]

RFK may have a valid point with regard to the sugar and salt content of processed foods, ready-meals, cereals and candy bars -but is it not a case of what you get with one hand, is taken away with the other? He has said there is too much focus on infectious disease, which is a strange thing to say when they pose risks to life.

If it needs to be done, get an expert to do it! There I said it. Expert.

[Stavros]

Vote Trump, get Musk -is the reality that Musk now has more effective power -and more extensive contacts- than the President? But on this basis, should he be the CEO of a company with 'Global Reach' using his position to advance the fortunes of the business, as well as being a member of the US Govt?

One might say it is not ethical, but when you say the word, hysterical laugher is heard throughout the Capitol. Even Putin is giggling. Did Musk and Trump campaign to end Freedom in Ukraine? They have given up on Gaza, so maybe, though Gaza and Lebanon and going to cost the American tax payer billions of $$$.

Democratic Senators call for probe into Musk's alleged contact with Putin - BBC News

[Paladin]

Maybe they'll wake up for the next election. But I'm not going to hold my breath.

When I take my US Rt 66 road trip I plan to spend only one night in chicago, IF I stay there at all. I'll probably just get to the start point, take a couple pics and get the hell out of there as fast as the car can take me. I have NO interest in anything in that cesspool of a city.

[filghy2]

As vote-counting goes on, the claimed Trump landslide is looking less and less impressive. Trump's share of the popular vote has now fallen below 50% and the margin has shrunk to 1.6%. It will shrink a little further as there are still some California votes to be counted. That will make it the second smallest popular vote margin since 1968.

At this stage Trump's vote is up by 2.5 million (3.5%) compared to 2020, while the Democrat vote is down 7 million (8.7%). Taking account of population growth, that suggests a modest increase in Trump's share of the voting population. The main story in this Presidential election is the collapse in the Democrat vote, rather than the increase in votes for Trump.

The results in Congressional elections were even less impressive. Republicans ended up with virtually the same narrow majority in the House of Reps that they had before the election. In the Senate they picked up 3 seats, but Democrats had many more seats at risk and they hung unto 3 seats in states won by Trump.