Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Especially as this was definitely one of the more likely outcomes. But I do not think they can imagine the possibility of not prioritizing yourself.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Really? Yesterday's NYT said they already have attack ads prepared.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

People complain about California being hell out of rank envy.

Newsome is not my favorite, but agree with you 100% -- he is good at what he does.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Did you know that the NYT writes that sort of article by giving their sources a sponge bath with their tongues?

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

When? I doubt Trump would agree to a debate, but if he does it’s v Harris. The VP goes against a writer/storyteller. And just like I own all you lot, Vance will own him. Plus, you’ll pick a VP to firm up winning Cali? It will be a Midwest swing state gov.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

So “fake news?” Are you a Trump sock?

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Do you know what a beat-sweetener is?

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

No. Explain? I mean, I looked it up, but it makes no sense to explain the article.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

You and I both read the article. It suggested that the Trump campaign was ready for Biden to drop out and Harris to be their opponent. We both saw, on Sunday, that the Trump campaign didn't seem so ready.

Here is my hypothesis. Someone from the NYT proposed a story about how the Trump campaign would handle Biden dropping out and Harris being their opponent. They interviewed people from the campaign about this, and wrote a story about how awesome the campaign people were, and how ready they were, and all that good stuff. They wrote this article this way, in part, to curry favor with their sources in the Trump campaign, to ensure good access to future stories. Were they intentionally misreporting? Of course not. But it's hard to really assess how ready the campaign would be to deal with a new opponent, and when they tell you they're on top of it, isn't it easier to report it that way? If you're writing the story, you're not really expecting Biden to drop out the next morning, and for the Trump campaign to fumble in its response.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I am partial to Whitmer now. SHE IS NO JABRONI.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I don't think people complain about it being hell. It's a beautiful state.

People complain about it being run badly by crazy progressives.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

She is funny. But she gets kidnapped too much.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Agreed, but in aggregate, the difference I noted remains.

If you're a small or mid-sized businessperson, you want Rs. They aren't likely to create any new taxes or regulations on you, or expand enforcement in any way (small and mid-sized businesses operate in numerous compliance "grey zones"). They also tend to cut taxes and preside over more lax lending practices by capital providers. These things, among many more, help businesspeople and result in more hiring.

Democrats focus on the desperate more than the workers or the small businesspeople who employ them. I'm not saying this as a criticism, by the way. That's a valid approach. But Democrats tend to regulate more often, and more aggressively enforce it. They tend to pass new laws that make it difficult to employ people. More Ds = More rules. It's a reality, not a stereotype. Ds have a tendency to try to control things, to intervene in commerce in manners that protect those with no power. This can be helpful. It can also be counterproductive. More rules and things like higher minimum wages lead historically to less hiring. More taxes have this effect as well.

The truly poor are better off under Democrats. People who are generally dependent on the govt are as well. People who want to build small businesses and who work in them are better off under Republicans.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Best candidate for Ds out there. She should be running for Pres on D ticket, not VP. She'd definitely beat Trump. Harris might as well, but it's a toss up.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Is the Trump Campaign really ever on top of anything? They had a great social media campaign in 2016, but that's it. Everyone I know who's worked with them has described a disorganized bunch that, like its leader, makes decisions in an almost exclusively reactive manner. Run and gun offense, everything on the fly.

In one regard, they can be viewed as ready for anything. In another, they're never really ready for anything.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I can't image being super-rich and leaving California for...Texas or Florida. What a downgrade (in terms of natural beauty). Florida and Texas (and Arizona) are unlivable for 4 months (but maybe I just hate the heat).

Maybe the people who have made the move don't care about natural scenery, etc. My guess is Elon is holed up in his home office all day regardless of where he lives.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

It's pretty wild that an assassination attempt that happened 9 days ago is already old news.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Sebby, curious what you think of your governor; press seems to indicate he's pretty widely popular.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

He's a very popular moderate. I voted for him and like him so far. People in both parties like him as he tends to be transactional and pragmatic.

But I'm not sure how much he moves the dial here. Harris is a CA senator who's considered (on the East Coast/Mid-Atlantic at least) as a lightweight, and by a significant percentage of people, not exactly competent. Shapiro would gain some votes here, but I think he'd only be making up for those old people and moderate Rs in the collar counties who voted for Biden but will not vote for Harris.

Joe was an easy sell here because everybody knows someone like him and he spent his career commuting back and forth between DC and Wilmington, just below the border. Harris has a very different background, and I don't just mean her race and sex.

She's probably going to run into the same thing that's going to cost McCormick, an ex-fund manager at Bridgewater (Ray Dalio's outfit), his election (he's running against Casey for Senate). Both the city and rural folk here do not trust perceived "elites" of any kind.* They want home grown stuff, like Shapiro. Blue dogs are adored here. Progressives and "Wall St. fat cats" are electoral poison.

She also can't run on abortion, and talking about green energy is doom. The sole issues in the state are inflation and growth, and fracking to sell natural gas to other countries is seen as one of the biggest growth areas that needs to be expanded. Joe did himself few favors in the state with that dumb ban on terminals for further sale of LNG abroad.
__________
* I hate the word, as the people who think they're elites are usually what Taleb calls "intellectuals yet idiots" and those who brand others as elites are just plain old idiots. But it's in the political vernacular now, so I'm using it.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

TX and FL are easy in matters like zoning and licensing. What would take a million permits and variances in the teeth of a ridiculous pile of regulations and zoning ordinances in CA gets done at 10X the speed in FL and TX.

I just spoke with client last week which is "tying off" CA operations (running them off and shutting them down). Too much of a pain in the ass to do business, and too many lawsuits. Clients I know who've got operations in TX and FL love it. You can do a lot more without asking for permission.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I was referring to people; not a business. I am aware of why those states are better for business.

But if you move your company to those states, you probably have to live there. It's not that Florida and Texas are bad places - it's just that compared to California they are ugly.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

VP candidates rarely move the dial, but we have a lot of political journalists who see stories in believing otherwise. After the events of the last few days, we should all understand that the important thing about VPs is that sometimes they have to step up, but that doesn't mean that voters care.

Former Senator, former Attorney General, "considered" this as she runs against a guy who was a reality TV star, stared at an eclipse, and told people to drink bleach. But she's the one considered a lightweight, "not exactly competent." Relatedly, Ginger Rogers did everything Fred Astaire did, but backwards and in high heels.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

1. Yup

2. Nobody said he’s not a lightweight (odd phrasing given his physicality). But it must be noted, if all one’s done is worked in politics, how can one not be a lightweight. Bubba being a huge exception who understood the economy like he’d been a CEO.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Then why do political parties pick them as if they do?

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Because they sometimes do. Tin Fey was a disaster for McCain.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

These days presidential candidates pick them, not the parties, and I don't think there's a simple story about who gets picked. But a lot of political journalists like to write stories as if that is central to what is going on.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I can't help but think picking a Penn governor will help win Penn.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

It can’t hurt. But I think her path may be less courting Penn moderates and more getting out the youth vote. She isn’t saddled with Joe’s position on Israel or his age, both of which alienate young voters.

Young voter registration jumped 700% when she became presumptive nominee.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Cite please

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I don't have any idea where Sebby saw that number, but there have been a lot of stories this week about increases in voter registration since the weekend. You can find them using the Google.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Here. Or just do a google search for "vote.org" and "700%" There are multiple sources reporting it, including Politico.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

On another note, Trump pulling out of the debate with her looks weak. He's arguing that he needs to do so because of the sentencing on September 18. Why? And... huh? You'd think he'd want to do so before the 18th to avoid having any sentence cited by Harris in the debate. As it stands now, Harris can badger him for a new debate date after the 18th and assert he has no reason not to participate except for being afraid.

The idea that one should not debate when one is ahead is smart when one is ahead by a significant margin. Trump is not ahead by a significant margin in all of the battlegrounds. He has AZ, NV, GA, and NC, it appears, but PA has tightened since Harris' entry, and MI and WI are ties.

I also think he's making a huge error in thinking his conviction in NY, which is widely seen as a kangaroo political trial, is a big deal. First, highlighting the banana republic aspect and nakedly political aim of that prosecution actually helps him raise money and attract independents disgusted with what happened there. Second, in the rust belt, this election is all about cost of living. Working class voters there aren't high enough up Maslow's Hierarchy of needs to care about the character of the candidate, abortion rights, the environment, or "democracy being on the ballot." He could dispense with an argument from Harris about any of those things by simply looking a the audience and saying, "Gas will be $2.50 a gallon under me... Bet on it!" and he wins.

But never thinks that far. He never thinks at all. Which is proven by his selection of Vance.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I think Trump is a little spooked by her. Not sure how long that will last.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Woah.
https://cdn.bsky.app/img/feed_thumbn...55rprohkq@jpeg

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

From the page that told us Trump will win in 2016. https://www.realclearpolling.com/map...ctoral-college

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Cite please

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Trump has called it that in a transparent effort to delegitimize the proceedings, a typical move for him, and many of his supporters have repeated it. I'd be more curious to know if Sebby himself thinks it was a kangaroo political trial, and, if so, why, and what he would have done differently as the judge. If not, I wonder why Sebby is choosing to repeat nonsense with which he disagrees.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

This is actually two questions.

First, was the prosecution a kangaroo/banana republic political decision? Yes. Unequivocally. Even Andrew Cuomo has called it an embarrassment. It was nakedly political and there is no dispute on that. Don’t even attempt to justify it. You’ll only embarrass yourself. Bragg’s predecessor wouldn’t bring the case. And Bragg campaigned on “getting Trump.”

Second, we come to the trial. Was that a kangaroo proceeding? I don’t think so. The judge and jury did what they were supposed to do. Was it an improper forum? Probably. But Trump has preserved the argument that he could not receive a fair trial for appeal. So again, technically not unfair.

Apologists for the nakedly political motive behind the prosecution will try to conflate these two things. As if “The trial was fairly administered!” is a retort to the argument the decision to prosecute was obviously political.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

I mean, he did it and it was obvious he did it. You can call that "political" if you want, but he still did it.

Re: Implanting Bill Gates's Micro-chips In Brains For Over 20 Years!
 

Your conceit that "the"* motive bending the decision to bring the case was political is pretty decisively refuted by the fact that Trump had no good defense, factual or legal, and was convicted. It's clear that he did what he did, and that it was a crime. Calling it "political" is meant to persuade people who weren't paying attention that Trump didn't actually do the crimes, and that the convictions weren't fair, to change the subject from what he did and feed the grievances of him and his followers. But he did do the crimes, and he was fairly convicted for them.


* There can be only one?