mdgoonah41 feels like she's overly boosting the Cheney's support. I get the political optics, but she's been name dropping dick Cheney a little too much. he's still one of the most unpopular figures in politics, and given he was the main figurehead of the administration that stole Florida to win in 2000, there's a touch of irony there as well. the post 9/11 years leading into the 2008 gfc are the years that torched much of America's trust in their institutions and media, and paved the way for the charlatan/demagogue era we see now. I'm not sure how much being all loved up with the Cheney's helps her when her slogan is 'we're not going back'. need to see more tim walz doing media like at the start of the campaign. people like him the more they see of him.

    ive been really disappointed that the dem machine swallowed walz up after he was picked and kept him hidden for so long. i thought the big appeal of him was that he knew how to talk to people. he should be doing tons of interviews, appearing on podcasts, etc. hopefully they've just been trying to time it right and do a blitz for the last month.

    from what I've seen in the national polls, the reason it's still within 3 points is because trump is running up numbers in inconsequential states like Florida, new York and california, which is giving him the impression of looking strong nationally. but it doesn't necessarily translate to the swing states. I have a gut feeling there's a big polling miss that will break kamalas way on election day. women, independents, suburbians, college educated people across the whole gender/ethnicity spectrum - I think they get her over the line

    As far as very wealthy men go, he's outstandingly moronic.

      Burnwinter

      It’s what makes him unique. Other publicly awful wealthy folk usually have an angle. He’s the first where it generally comes across as self sabotage.

          goon he also seems to think he's in on the joke when people are laughing at him.

            the funniest thing about musk is that hes a pioneer in electric vehicles, space travel and what is essentially "futuristic" technology. yet hes now online trying to convince people that democrats are creating hurricanes with lasers. its some of the dumbest shit ive ever seen. most right wing lunatics on social media are just grifters trying to make a few bucks off of people with low double digit IQs. hes still an insanely wealthy person who doesnt need the $27 checks from the company he owns to further his bottom line. its just kind of wild to me.

            He's obviously making a play for political influence in "conservative"/Republican circles. Being stupidly wealthy is sometimes not enough for stupidly wealthy folks.

              He seems to regularly destroy his family and romantic life, and to be a generally unpleasant piece of work. I don't think he's got any degree of calibration about these things.

              the stuff that happened with his ex and his daughter caused so much emotional damage that he doesn't seem capable of processing, so he's decided to do the billionaire thing and process all of his trauma by buying a social media company and waging a personal war against 'trans/woke' and anyone he's perceived to enable it. his positions has attracted the 4CHANish elements of the internet, who have been acting as a trauma blanket for little elon for the last 2-3 years, and the enabling has led to him going full MAGA.

              flobaba he's the richest man alive, that already give him more influence than any politician. He's probably losing influence acting like this.

                He's just cosplaying as an alt-right lunatic, largely because it benefits his position in Twitter. It was barely a decade ago when Musk portrayed himself as a moderate Tony Stark like figure to the point that he even had a cameo in Iron Man 2 because it benefited his interests.

                • goon replied to this.

                  Mirth

                  Does it actually benefit him though? It gets his personal profile more interaction, but activity and advertising is dropping.

                  None of his companies really benefit from nationalism/protectionism either from what I can see.

                    he's knee deep in illegality imo. he's sucking up to trump because he'll get some favours that will keep him out of legal trouble. twitter is a loss leader for his goal of getting trump elected. it was never intended to be a profitable endeavour.

                    https://www.theatlantic.com/technology/archive/2024/10/hurricane-milton-conspiracies-misinformation/680221/?gift=bQgJMMVzeo8RHHcE1_KM0d1QbzuILX70HtMfLuZ19f8

                    really excellent piece on where we are right now in terms of the absolute nonsense coming out of the far right/grifter space

                    What we’re witnessing online during and in the aftermath of these hurricanes is a group of people desperate to protect the dark, fictitious world they’ve built. Rather than deal with the realities of a warming planet hurling once-in-a-generation storms at them every few weeks, they’d rather malign and threaten meteorologists, who, in their minds, are “nothing but a trained subversive liar programmed to spew stupid shit to support the global warming bullshit,” as one X user put it. It is a strategy designed to silence voices of reason, because those voices threaten to expose the cracks in their current worldview. But their efforts are doomed, futile. As one dispirited meteorologist wrote on X this week, “Murdering meteorologists won’t stop hurricanes.” She followed with: “I can’t believe I just had to type that.”

                    Not to be Johnny know-it-all but the stubbornness with which conservatives cling to delusions about the climate is no greater than the liberal bulldog grip on the premise sufficient clear, public reasoning produces rational government in the collective interest.

                      incredible the curve that this utter fuckstick gets graded on. in the last 2 weeks alone, he has publicly and repeatedly:

                      • threatened to withhold aid from states that don't adopt his policy positions
                      • said he'd look at revoking CBS' broadcast license because he didn't like how one of kamalas interview was edited
                      • been outed for sending hospital grade covid supplies to putin in 2020
                      • talked about invoking the alien act of 1798 to get rid of immigrants
                      • said that law enforcement will be given total federal immunity to enforce the above

                      and the above weren't singular off the cuff comments - he's repeated most of them in different interviews 2-3 times. feels like when trump speaks, the words of nazi gollum Stephen miller come spilling out verbatim. Ive never seen the tactic of 'flooding the zone with shit' employed so effectively

                      the idea of supporting this because he's some kind anti-establishment peoples champion simply doesn't wash. he's going to install a start-up oligarchy that will be far shittier than the old one, and put the absolute dregs of society in charge to oversee it