[The Weeping Angel]

Tubbs you heard about the latest in North Carolina?

[Bones McCoy]

And a Diet Coke.

[Tubby Isaacs]

Tubbs you heard about the latest in North Carolina?

Robinson is fucked, but I'll bite your hand off for that presidential result. Got a horrible feeling that there could be a lot of ticket splitting which will get Trump pver the line.

Meanwhile, actual US Representative speaks.

[Crabcakes]

And a Diet Coke.

I will guarantee you 2 things about this couple of planetoids:

1. They go hunting
2. They present their being able to shoot a deer from a comfy chair within a hide using a high-powered rifle with a telescopic sight as evidence of their bravery, cunning, strength and virility, rather than it being the ultimate expression of pathetic cowardice.

[zuriblue]

And a Diet Coke.

We’re saved. Meal team 6 have arrived.

[Philip Marlow]

How the hell do you not cringe yourself out of your own skin in that getup? I have a weight problem of my own which I’m trying to sort out, but I do not dress like I’m cosplaying as a man of iron. Seriously lads, Gunnery Sergeant Hartman would not be impressed.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

I believe it's AI generated.

[Tubby Isaacs]

It may well be. Most people who own guns don't look like that.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It may well be. Most people who own guns don't look like that.

True. Some of them are women.

[Tubby Isaacs]

I've been to Texas lots of times and I can't remember any old people walking round in military surplus gear. I imagine that, like here, it's more of an alternative young person look than a gun nut look. I don't know if gun nuts even see themselves as being particularly military. The point is that guns are completely normalised in these states.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

One of the rationales for the extreme interpretation of the Second Amendment is to defeat an overmighty government/ruler, which many guncunts see as existing in any form of federal government. So they are preparing for the war of liberation. In some cases explicitly*.

(Wouldn't last 30 seconds against the 101st Airborne...)


*See also survivalists.

[Tubby Isaacs]

There are I think two levels of justification to gun nuttery. At the legal level, it's "originalism", which is absurd but provides a pseudo-intellectual gloss. And at the level of the Republican base, it's a vague (and contradictory) sense of freedom, leave me alone etc.

I don't think "shoot the Government" or "let's alll move to Idaho and prepare for the apocalypse" are very important, even among Southern Baptist Republicans who are the most pro-gun. Their lives are not particularly different to the minority of white Democrats who live in their countryside and small towns. Getting ready for war isn't a thing most of them worry about.

For one thing, these people aren't stupid. They get that they'd be shot to pieces by the real US Army if they tried it.

[Bones McCoy]

There are I think two levels of justification to gun nuttery. At the legal level, it's "originalism", which is absurd but provides a pseudo-intellectual gloss. And at the level of the Republican base, it's a vague (and contradictory) sense of freedom, leave me alone etc.

I don't think "shoot the Government" or "let's alll move to Idaho and prepare for the apocalypse" are very important, even among Southern Baptist Republicans who are the most pro-gun. Their lives are not particularly different to the minority of white Democrats who live in their countryside and small towns. Getting ready for war isn't a thing most of them worry about.

For one thing, these people aren't stupid. They get that they'd be shot to pieces by the real US Army if they tried it.

The ones on Forums seem convinced that "The military wont open fire on their own, they'll change sides and support us".

Meanwhile Obama and Biden are the real traitors.

[Tubby Isaacs]

They're not convinced enough to put it to the test.

In the meantime, I'm being killed by hope.

Mark Chadbourn
‪@chadbourn.bsky.social‬
Morning Consult polling of swing states.

Arizona - Harris +3
Georgia - Tie
N. Carolina - Harris +2
Nevada - Harris +7
Michigan - Harris +3
Pennsylvania - Harris +5
Wisconsin - Harris +3

LV (26/9/24)

[Malcolm Armsteen]

It's not the disappointment, it's the hope I can't stand...

[Crabcakes]

Reading some of the commentary on the notes Jack Smith has released. It’s all broadly known, of course, but there’s ao much direct evidence tying it back to Trump.

Also, it’ll actually make you feel sorry for - and have some respect for - Mike Pence. The level of pressure he was under to lie for Trump was unbelievable. And when his life was in danger Trump literally responded “So what?”

If “her emails” was enough to derail Clinton, by all rights this should bury Trump.

[RedSparrows]

It won't, of course.

He'll simultaneously have done nothing, done nothing wrong, AND was only fighting for democracy.

[Crabcakes]

Oh I agree. But if it nudges things by even 1%, that could be enough.

[Malcolm Armsteen]

Some of the current polls are encouraging for Harris.

[Crabcakes]

My worry is mainly that her gaining ground is great, but because of the absurd electoral college it comes down to a few swing areas. Unless the polling is really off and it’s a blowout (and there are signs that’s not impossible, as Republican voters are significantly more likely to respond to phone polls), nudging the needle on those areas is key. And it’s things like Jack Smith’s dossier that’ll do it.