Scrutable

monkey wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:56 pm

dyqik wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:21 pm Plus Vance has pissed off a lot of people in Appalachia.

lpm wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:31 pm It is intended to win MI and PA.

I thought pretty much all of Pennsylvania was in Appalachia, because that's where the mountains go. It turns out it's more complicated than that and lots of people have ideas about that sort of thing.

But I did find out that for some definitions, I am in Appalachia, which I'm pretty sure is stretching things a bit.

I'm not far from the Appalachian Trail.

dyqik wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 12:45 am

monkey wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:56 pm

dyqik wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:21 pm Plus Vance has pissed off a lot of people in Appalachia.

lpm wrote: Mon Jul 15, 2024 10:31 pm It is intended to win MI and PA.

I thought pretty much all of Pennsylvania was in Appalachia, because that's where the mountains go. It turns out it's more complicated than that and lots of people have ideas about that sort of thing.

But I did find out that for some definitions, I am in Appalachia, which I'm pretty sure is stretching things a bit.

I'm not far from the Appalachian Trail.

I'm not far from it either (for American values of not far, about a three hour drive).

It's a long trail.

Is Appalachia as bad as it sounds?

Apparently the police were aware of the shooter almost 30 minutes before shots were fired

https://www.yahoo.com/news/alleged-trum ... 14983.html

Vance is an odd one. He wrote the book "Hillbilly Elegy" which attracted a lot of attention when it was published. He seemed to be speaking for a forgotten population of Americans and he didn't at the time seem to be totally batshit crazy, and he has said some disobliging things about Trump. But now seems to have gone full Trump grifter.

wilsontown wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 9:14 am Vance is an odd one. He wrote the book "Hillbilly Elegy" which attracted a lot of attention when it was published. He seemed to be speaking for a forgotten population of Americans and he didn't at the time seem to be totally batshit crazy, and he has said some disobliging things about Trump. But now seems to have gone full Trump grifter.

It turns out that half of that book was false. He talks about being a marine in it, but doesn't really mention that his marine role was as a combat correspondent - i.e. a journalist.

He's a Silicon Valley VC gifted a job by Peter Thiel, who then paid millions for Vance's Senate campaign.

If the cult can believe in Trump as a devout Christian, there's no problem believing Vance is a war hero.

The combi works well. Vance can take over the vicious hatred tasks, Trump can fake the unifying statesman role.

lpm wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:17 am If the cult can believe in Trump as a devout Christian, there's no problem believing Vance is a war hero.

The combi works well. Vance can take over the vicious hatred tasks, Trump can fake the unifying statesman role.

American Christian Nationalists are used to believing that black is white. I'm much less sure that white working class voters will.

lpm wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:17 am If the cult can believe in Trump as a devout Christian, there's no problem believing Vance is a war hero.

The combi works well. Vance can take over the vicious hatred tasks, Trump can fake the unifying statesman role.

I don't think that they ever believed that Trump is a devout Christian. But they support him because he is useful to them. The same will go for Vance, as long as he says the right things he'll get support from the true believers.

Trump isn't trying to unify anything, its just a means to get the Democrats to stop attacking him.

Woodchopper wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:50 am

lpm wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 10:17 am If the cult can believe in Trump as a devout Christian, there's no problem believing Vance is a war hero.

The combi works well. Vance can take over the vicious hatred tasks, Trump can fake the unifying statesman role.

I don't think that they ever believed that Trump is a devout Christian. But they support him because he is useful to them. The same will go for Vance, as long as he says the right things he'll get support from the true believers.

Trump isn't trying to unify anything, its just a means to get the Democrats to stop attacking him.

There's so much oppo research on Vance, the risk is in people getting pissed off that there wasn't time to use their personal favorite.

Oh, and Vance is a Catholic, which means the Christian Nationalists believe he's controlled by the antichrist in Rome.

TimW wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 7:08 am Is Appalachia as bad as it sounds?

Not been to that much of it. But the touristy bits* I've been to have been alright. Touristy bits though. It looks very nice and there's good barbeque.

In general, it doesn't seem much different to the rest of the rural US. Even though geography did it's thing to make differences, the problems seem the same - no investment, lack of jobs. It's probably not as bad as the stereotype, but yeah, it'll have its problems ready to be exploited by the right and religionists leading to the stereotype, and not much will to fix things.


*Pigeon Forge is probably the weirdest place I have been to, and is also somewhere that could only exist in the US.

monkey wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:40 am

TimW wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 7:08 am Is Appalachia as bad as it sounds?

Not been to that much of it....

Thanks for replying but, appalogies, it was just an appalling jest.

monkey wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:40 am
*Pigeon Forge is probably the weirdest place I have been to, and is also somewhere that could only exist in the US.

Home of Dollywood.

Chris Preston wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 3:00 pm

monkey wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:40 am
*Pigeon Forge is probably the weirdest place I have been to, and is also somewhere that could only exist in the US.

Home of Dollywood.

Yeah, but I didn't go, because it didn't seem like it'd be worth the money. The salt and pepper shaker museum in Gatlinburg just down the road was though.

monkey wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 3:13 pm

Chris Preston wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 3:00 pm

monkey wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:40 am
*Pigeon Forge is probably the weirdest place I have been to, and is also somewhere that could only exist in the US.

Home of Dollywood.

Yeah, but I didn't go, because it didn't seem like it'd be worth the money. The salt and pepper shaker museum in Gatlinburg just down the road was though.

I can recommend the Bobblehead Hall of Fame in Milwaukee. Maybe not this week though.

monkey wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 3:13 pm

Chris Preston wrote: Wed Jul 17, 2024 3:00 pm

monkey wrote: Tue Jul 16, 2024 11:40 am
*Pigeon Forge is probably the weirdest place I have been to, and is also somewhere that could only exist in the US.

Home of Dollywood.

Yeah, but I didn't go, because it didn't seem like it'd be worth the money. The salt and pepper shaker museum in Gatlinburg just down the road was though.

I just went hiking in the Great Smoky Mountains.

Biden has Covid: https://x.com/BNONews/status/1813697521430278524

Convenient?

Odds that he drops out have shot up: https://x.com/Polymarket/status/1813698396273934568

I haven't double checked this terrible polling for Biden but it conforms to my priors so I'm going with it.

https://x.com/peterbakernyt/status/1813566437182853509

The chaos just can't go on. What is the force that will elevate Biden again? I don't think there's enough upwards force to stop him sinking even further.

At the RNC attendees are asked about Liz Truss. Hilarity ensues.

https://x.com/theipaper/status/1813585860262056168?s=61

In 2020 Biden won a fairly narrow EC majority with +4.5 of the national vote.

In 2016 Clinton lost a very narrow EC with +2.1 points.

The latest CBS poll has Biden at -5 nationally. A 7 point gap to where he needs to be at least.

Joe’s out. I feel sad, scared and hopeful all at the same time.

https://x.com/joebiden/status/1815080881981190320?s=61

Well that's that.

Really sad. But it was over.

I hereby publicly endorse Hunter Biden.

Biden has endorsed Kamala Harris.

lpm wrote: Sun Jul 21, 2024 6:02 pm Well that's that.

Really sad. But it was over.

I hereby publicly endorse Hunter Biden.

A real cunning plan would be to steal J D Vance to become Kamala’s VP. After all, Vance will say anything to get ahead and it will leave Trump floundering.

I’m not being entirely serious.

He’s now endorsed Kamala