Not the person you replied to, but you make a great point. There’s most certainly ulterior motives for joining forces. However, I would prefer to work alongside and run against (in future elections, may the voters work to keep them in existence) a relatively honorable opponent using this tactic as a means try to keep their seat, rather than their turning farther right, emboldening and embodying every trait of a traitorous enemy.

I feel like I’m stating the obvious here, but this seems so off-the-charts guaranteed to backfire on him. What even mild Swiftie isn’t going to figure out (or hasn’t already) just how fake this endorsement is? Of any celeb to fake, Taylor seems like a such a flamingly dumb choice in terms of the fandom’s social media engagement.

With all these increasingly stupid moves… Is he really that detached and senile, or is there more behind his [team’s] style of psycho-political warfare going on?

I don’t think I’ve seen it pondered anywhere on social media, so I must ask: Does it not seem like Trump is purposely trying to throw the election at this point? If that’s the case, I fear the heightened degree of nefarious intent for whatever guaranteed political unrest we will face in November. I don’t think this is baseless conspiratorial thinking on my part, unfortunately.

Or … Or … Maybe his patently obvious mental decline has eroded away just enough of his super-sized ego to let in juuust enough reality for him to consciously recognize that he is going to die soon whether he likes it or not, and now he doesn’t give a shit-a-minute if he wins anymore. Can you imagine?

Ahem… Loosh dentshursh.

I’ve never heard of this guy before, so I had to research. Wikipedia entry for his early life: “Pool was born in Chicago, Illinois, and grew up in a middle-class family. His father was a firefighter and his mother sold cars. Pool attended a Catholic school until completing the fifth grade and left school at the age of 14.”

Whelp. That explains a lot. I have yet to hear him speak or read any quotes on wiki or elsewhere. Though I can predict a certain cadence of speech and lack of even the tiniest depth of understanding of whatever he’s talking about.

So which do we think came first? Private school or the dumb?

Soooo, I kind of got déjà vu reading this article because … Six days ago I “foresaw” the relevance of “weird.” Comment thread here (I think) or just check out post my post history.

The author brings up a ton of specific points I called out, including using similar words like “flip” the script and referencing how “basket of deplorables” was too directed. Were we all thinking sbout “weird” in this context six days ago already? If not… I am weirded out, y’all.

Your style of sarcasm is so well done, nobody realizes the /s is implied. A+++ seller, would buy vote AGAIN AND AGAIN!!!

Am I the only one who didn’t realize the film Hillbilly Elegy was based on this particular guy’s memoir? No wonder it left me with a bad taste in my brain.

I remember deciding to watch it back when it was promoted on Netflix (in 2020-21?), going in completely blind to its background and bent, but wooed by the branding of it being “nominated for awards” and the imagery of a frazzled-looking Glenn Close.

I’ll try to reflect on what I thought of it then without reference to what I know now: The whole movie was uncomfortable, felt weirdly holier-than-thou, and made me question what was supposed to be so good about how this guy was “overcoming” traumatic circumstances. I don’t think I finished it in one go, only doing so because Glenn Close and Amy Adams brought talent to these painfully stereotypified roles. (I had just finished Sharp Objects, so you can imagine how disappointed I was that Amy had to work with so little substance, no pun intended, in this role’s storyline.)

I remember thinking I really disliked the actor who played JD Vance for having such flat personality and boring acting skills. As it turns out, the actor did a helluva job! Bravo!

I hadn’t seen this before, and it was generally really enlightening that these Trump supporters have genuine concerns for the working class, obvious as that should be by now. It just sucks that they’ve been hoodwinked into thinking that Trump is their savior from the corporate oligarchy that is clearly affecting us all. Misplaced reverence to a guy who is a mechanism in the same pro-corporate atmosphere. If only they realized that the Democrat party (flawed as it is) actually works toward their interests with policy (edit: toward improving wages, taxing the ultra rich more fairly, healthcare ideally for all, social programs, etc.), rather than attaching themselves to this “not-a-career-politician” who couldn’t care less about them. Maybe not all hope is lost on trump supporters, but the cult of personality is much too strong and has been for a long time.