2024 US Presidential Election Thread

[Eunos_Cosmo]

Link

DETROIT, Oct 28 (Reuters) - Tiesha Blackwell, 24, voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but says she is casting her ballot for Republican former President Donald Trump this year, and high food and housing prices are a chief reason.
Blackwell, who lives southwest of Detroit in the battleground state of Michigan, says she has a better job now, but her rent has since doubled after she was forced to move, and her grocery and utility bills have soared.

"I'm not worse off than I was four years ago," Blackwell said on the sidelines of a rally featuring Trump's running mate JD Vance in Detroit this month.
"But compared to then, things are really, really high out here. I went from paying $575 to now I pay $1,100 just for rent. I remember ground chuck was $2.99 a pound. Now it's $4.99. Everything is higher."

...

Still, when asked which candidate had the better approach on issues, Trump led on the economy - 46% to 38%, this month's Reuters poll showed.
People who study economics say they feel voters' frustration even if they don't think Trump's plan will help.

Blackwell, the Michigan voter, says she buys Trump's argument that tariffs are needed to keep out imports and protect U.S. jobs. "Yeah, it could increase the price for consumers, but in the long run something has to be done," she said.

I voted for Joe Biden in 2020 but inflation is bad, and it's my top issue, so I'm going to vote for the guy who will make it worse.

It's just mind blowing the contortions people will put themselves through to express their discontent with economic reality. It reminds me of how people hate that winter has shorter days. I think this goes back to my theory that a lot of people think they have nothing to lose or that somehow things just couldn't get worse...despite a record stock market and a generally strong economy. They don't want to elect Donald Trump, per say,...they want to punish Joe Biden because beef is more expensive and they are simply lying to themselves about their reasoning.

 

[Blitz24]

I'm not sure which policy will make prices worse: Trump's tariffs or Trump's deportation plans.

 

[FuriousDemon]

Ditto. Deporting immigrants doing jobs nobody wants for the money nobody wants is not going to help keep those prices down.

 

[McLaren]

I'm not sure which policy will make prices worse: Trump's tariffs or Trump's deportation plans.

I think if some of these people understood what a tariff is & the impact Trump's tariffs could possibly do, it'd flip their votes.

I mean, I just talked to someone today who told me they listened to Trump on Rogan. I mentioned Trump still doesn't know **** about tariffs, and this person said, "Yeah, he does". No, he doesn't, he thinks the foreign country pays the fee when the importer does. And this person told me, "Well, Trump will change that". I wanted to ask just how in the hell Trump is going to suddenly make China pay a tariff fee for something a US company imported to use/sell, but you can't talk with this line of logic. It just goes back to their belief that, "Trump's a successful businessman, he can do it".

 

[UKMikey]

"Chiynah will pay for the tariffs" is the new "Mexico will pay for the wall". MAGA won't care if Trump breaks his promises so long as they can wreck the economy to own the libs.

 

[Jezza819]

I'm not sure which policy will make prices worse: Trump's tariffs or Trump's deportation plans.

Ditto. Deporting immigrants doing jobs nobody wants for the money nobody wants is not going to help keep those prices down.

Last night John Oliver had an excellent piece on Trump's mass deportation plan. First off most Republicans keep claiming the number of illegal immigrants in the US is between 20 to 25 million. The actual number is maybe about 13 million. So even if it's 13 million, what are you going to do with them? The total prison population in the US right now is about 1.9 million. Now you're trying to arrest and imprison about 10 times the current prison population? I'm sure it would be handled humanely? Yeah right.

Another part of the piece examined what @FuriousDemon brought up and that is how much immigrants really mean to the US economy. They do the jobs that no one else wants to do. There's a whole lot of conservatives making a ton of money using immigrant labor. If you have Max I highly urge you to watch it or maybe the whole episode will be uploaded to Youtube on Thursday.

 

[Blitz24]

Last night John Oliver had an excellent piece on Trump's mass deportation plan. First off most Republicans keep claiming the number of illegal immigrants in the US is between 20 to 25 million. The actual number is maybe about 13 million. So even if it's 13 million, what are you going to do with them? The total prison population in the US right now is about 1.9 million. Now you're trying to arrest and imprison about 10 times the current prison population? I'm sure it would be handled humanely? Yeah right.

Another part of the piece examined what @FuriousDemon brought up and that is how much immigrants really mean to the US economy. They do the jobs that no one else wants to do. There's a whole lot of conservatives making a ton of money using immigrant labor. If you have Max I highly urge you to watch it or maybe the whole episode will be uploaded to Youtube on Thursday.

Conservatives will just enslave the immigrants they can't deport. Problem solved!

 

[UKMikey]

Last night John Oliver had an excellent piece on Trump's mass deportation plan. First off most Republicans keep claiming the number of illegal immigrants in the US is between 20 to 25 million. The actual number is maybe about 13 million. So even if it's 13 million, what are you going to do with them? The total prison population in the US right now is about 1.9 million. Now you're trying to arrest and imprison about 10 times the current prison population? I'm sure it would be handled humanely? Yeah right.

Another part of the piece examined what @FuriousDemon brought up and that is how much immigrants really mean to the US economy. They do the jobs that no one else wants to do. There's a whole lot of conservatives making a ton of money using immigrant labor. If you have Max I highly urge you to watch it or maybe the whole episode will be uploaded to Youtube on Thursday.

I'm watching it now. Couch says mass deportation of undocumented immigrants will magically solve the housing crisis but Oliver points out that without immigrants, who's actually going to build the houses you need?

Politicians are trying to tie immigration to our housing crisis. They’re lying.

The available evidence tells a much different story.

www.msnbc.com

 

[dcmo3]

Ditto. Deporting immigrants doing jobs nobody wants for the money nobody wants is not going to help keep those prices down.

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

 

[Blitz24]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

I wasn't aware that you'd easily be able to get dairy farm workers this way.

 

[UKMikey]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

Rounding up a bunch of inexperienced, unwilling social security claimants and forcing them into a hazardous, physically demanding industry sounds like a great way to end up with a whole lot of unsafe, badly built homes with leaky roofs.

I wasn't aware that you'd easily be able to get dairy farm workers this way.

Maybe they're gonna force them to watch the Trump dance as an instructional video on how to milk a cow?

 

[Danoff]

One of these is in my neighborhood. This joke is from a simpler time. The whole friggin' discussion right now is whether we get to keep voting for our president. Putting this sign up seems like confusion about what's happening.

 

[eran0004]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

Okay. And then you have both a housing crisis AND a homelessness crisis at the same time. And you’ve murdered the economy since a whole sector is just thrown under the bus.

But sure, Trump is a business genius. He’ll just release a fake gold plastic toothbrush made in China and the economy will be back on track again. And China will somehow have paid for it.

 

[McLaren]

One of these is in my neighborhood. This joke is from a simpler time. The whole friggin' discussion right now is whether we get to keep voting for our president. Putting this sign up seems like confusion about what's happening.

Funny timing you'd share this b/c Bob Weir endorsed Harris yesterday.

 

[Scaff]

First off most Republicans keep claiming the number of illegal immigrants in the US is between 20 to 25 million

Oh, I'm sure they could find people to make up the difference...

Conservatives will just enslave the immigrants they can't deport. Problem solved!

Well the 13th does still let them do that, all they have to do is find them guilty of something.

 

[Meythia]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

Jobs are not stolen but simply occupied by those who can be exploited for the lack of social security they suffer from.
Just removing a certian amount of workforce in the hopes of others grabbing the now vacated spaces doesnt work, neither for jobs that dont require much training (jobs with not a lot of attraction in many cases) nor those that require higher degrees of training or education because this requires time that (and money) that has not yet been invested.

 

[Scaff]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

I will take 'people talking about stuff they don't know or understand' for a hundred please Bob.

 

[UKMikey]

Meanwhile, over 200,000 people have cancelled their Washington Post subscription:

Washington Post writers say don’t dump subscriptions over non-endorsement

Fears for effect on jobs at newspaper owned by billionaire Jeff Bezos that declined to back a presidential candidate

www.theguardian.com

Here's a speech by Michelle Obama that Melania Trump probably won't be plagiarising:

 

[Joey D]

Give me a break. Those roofing jobs paid well, and were in high demand. For that matter, the whole construction industry is full of illegals. Take the people off of social services that have no business being there, and you'll find you have plenty of workers.

You do understand that many of those jobs that employ illegal immigrants are very, very rural while most people live in cities right? I'm not sure how someone living in Chicago would be able to go work in Hoopeston, IL to be a on farm. Also, construction is skilled labor. You can just take anyone and expect them to know how to put a roof on a house, nevermind the insurance that comes with it. Companies don't need to pay worker's comp or insure illegals on their payroll, get someone in there who's here legally and now the business owner is paying way more to staff them.

Jobs exist yes, but they don't always exist where people live. Also, jobs don't always pay what they should to attract people to work them. I'm not saying there should be a minimum wage, but any idiot who took Econ 101 should know that if you want a bigger pool of candidates to pull from you need to offer better pay and benefits.

 

[Kriptical]

Hahah. Roofers.

Most of those laborers got picked up and paid about $25 for their day. I know this because i owned a company in a spicy neighborhood, and watched every morning as the hopeful laborers gathered, and were picked up by the full range of construction companies. From small operations, to big ‘fancy,’ ones, they all came for the cheap labor and paid a pittance in cash. I’ve watched this for 20years.

Also….and not for nothing. The hispanics and black folks tend to not be on meth or adderal/whatev which most of the white guys are. These days it seems you have to pay double just to get a crew which doesn’t suck…and most of the time they do suck ..they just aren’t hooked on whatever.

 

[Danoff]

Hahah. Roofers.

Most of those laborers got picked up and paid about $25 for their day. I know this because i owned a company in a spicy neighborhood, and watched every morning as the hopeful laborers gathered, and were picked up by the full range of construction companies. From small operations, to big ‘fancy,’ ones, they all came for the cheap labor and paid a pittance in cash. I’ve watched this for 20years.

Also….and not for nothing. The hispanics and black folks tend to not be on meth or adderal/whatev which most of the white guys are. These days it seems you have to pay double just to get a crew which doesn’t suck…and most of the time they do suck ..they just aren’t hooked on whatever.

It should be obvious that an unskilled worker can do some construction jobs and not others. If you've ever watched a construction project intently, which you probably have, you know that there is a wide variety of skill and pay involved.

 

[Keef]

In cities where the result is basically guaranteed it really makes makes you wonder who would do such a thing.

But honestly it was probably some pro-Hamas moronic highschoolers.

 

[Danoff]

In cities where the result is basically guaranteed it really makes makes you wonder who would do such a thing.

But honestly it was probably some pro-Hamas moronic highschoolers.

Cities where the result is basically guaranteed are the point. They don't want to burn red ballots, just blue ones. So they go to a county that is heavily blue and drop an incendiary in a ballot box figuring they'll probably take out a few hundred blue ballots and maybe like 10 red ones. The net result is a tip of the scales for the state to the tune of 190 or so votes. In states where the result will be close, a couple of acts like this could determine the outcome.

The upside of mail-in voting drop boxes is that if your ballot was destroyed, you may have an opportunity to get a replacement. Colorado emails when your ballot gets mailed to you, when it is received back, and when it is counted. So if my ballot were destroyed I could request another, voiding the previous one. Also, as best I can tell, at least some of those ballots were recovered because apparently those boxes have fire suppression systems or something.

 

[Keef]

Cities where the result is basically guaranteed are the point. They don't want to burn red ballots, just blue ones. So they go to a county that is heavily blue and drop an incendiary in a ballot box figuring they'll probably take out a few hundred blue ballots and maybe like 10 red ones. The net result is a tip of the scales for the state to the tune of 190 or so votes. In states where the result will be close, a couple of acts like this could determine the outcome.

The upside of mail-in voting drop boxes is that if your ballot was destroyed, you may have an opportunity to get a replacement. Colorado emails when your ballot gets mailed to you, when it is received back, and when it is counted. So if my ballot were destroyed I could request another, voiding the previous one. Also, as best I can tell, at least some of those ballots were recovered because apparently those boxes have fire suppression systems or something.

Assuming it was conservatives rather than random assholes, sure it could have that effect. And a state like Oregon actually has some of the most extreme conservatives in the country in its very remote rural areas, borderline domestic terrorists.

 

[Danoff]

Assuming it was conservatives rather than random assholes, sure it could have that effect. And a state like Oregon actually has some of the most extreme conservatives in the country in its very remote rural areas, borderline domestic terrorists.

Given that both of these events were in heavily blue counties where the ballots could be assumed to be mostly democrat, my working assumption is that it's republicans on their typical democrats shouldn't be allowed to vote bent. Obviously that could be wrong, but enough facts point in that direction that it's where I sit at the moment.

 

[MatskiMonk]

I assume mail-in votes just don't go through the postal system because of tampering concerns?

 

[Danoff]

I assume mail-in votes just don't go through the postal system because of tampering concerns?

They can go through the postal system. I think most people assume that these ballot drop boxes are safer, because it won't get lost in the mail and no postage is necessary. That thinking might be changing though in response to these acts. The fastest most direct way to get your ballot counted is to drop it directly with the election officials in one of these boxes.

 

[UKMikey]

Also, as best I can tell, at least some of those ballots were recovered because apparently those boxes have fire suppression systems or something.

If I've read the article correctly the box in question's fire suppression system failed in this case.

 

[Danoff]

If I've read the article correctly the box in question's fire suppression system failed in this case.

At least one of them seems to have worked.

The Multnomah County Elections Division said in a statement that "fire suppressant inside the ballot box protected virtually all the ballots."

 

[Sprite]

I don’t get why they have an opening large enough to fit anything but a folded piece of paper through? Or were the devices this small?