Election 2024 Part III: Out with the old!

[Gori the Grey]

We found that coverage of Vice President Kamala Harris has been extremely positive (84%), while coverage of former President Donald Trump has been lopsidedly negative (79%),

Of course, one possible explanation for that disparity is that Harris is an appealing person with uplifting policies and Trump is an a**hole and hatemonger.

No one is owed positive coverage.

Hurricane Helene didn't get much positive coverage either.

Maybe try doing something positive and see if it nets you more positive coverage.

 

[Gorbles]

I think that too, FWIW. Apps make life worse, not better.

Apps are software. You're making forum posts on one such app, even if you're using a desktop PC.

 

[Voidwalkin]

Apps are software. You're making forum posts on one such app, even if you're using a desktop PC.

I think my life is worse because of it.

It's the best available bad option in present circumstances, but generally, I think we have moved far too much of life behind a screen.

I, the individual, can't really change that, because norms have moved away from face to face decidedly, but this shift hasn't really been socially healthy.

I actually partly attribute Trump to the consequences of that shift. Echo chambers reduce exposure to moderation via lack of contact with trusted community members, and a lack of a vibrant(or in some cases really any) social life tends to make people generally discontent, a negativity that finds an outlet in politics, amongst other places.

This, imo, is directly related to the increasing prevalence of apps, a problem creating some wild, unpredictable and wide ranging effects.

 

[EnglishEdward]

Yes, in the "good old days", one could go to the bar on a weekend night and in many talk complete nonsense.

It was expected so few people minded much. More important it was not recorded so one was not later held account for such silliness.

Of course if one became excessively offensive, one might get evicted from the bar or punched in the nose.
The experience and prospect of that tended to limit the scope of such inanity.

Now of course anything posted on the Net may be recorded and there is an army of the politically correct about.

So people post using false names and many think it is consequence free, and so they can be as nasty to strangers as they like.

That is change, but it is not necessarily an improvement.

 

[sophie]

I wonder if Trump got this idea from The Purge movies.

https://twitter.com/x/status/1840526130031317329

Pointed out on twitter but the comp here is not actually the Purge: a movie in which police were disempowered from intervening against (ostensibly) indiscriminate violence for a certain time without regard for target or outcome. Rather, Trump is proposing that police (and sympathetic private citizens) be enjoined to unleash maximum violence against a select group of private undesirables. It's Kristallnacht.

 

[lymond]

Pointed out on twitter but the comp here is not actually the Purge: a movie in which police were disempowered from intervening against (ostensibly) indiscriminate violence for a certain time without regard for target or outcome. Rather, Trump is proposing that police (and sympathetic private citizens) be enjoined to unleash maximum violence against a select group of private undesirables. It's Kristallnacht.

I was listening to news on NPR earlier this evening when I heard about this abomination. Trump’s camp was reported as saying this was all a big joke. However, that’s not what one hears. He is playing to his followers and they are not laughing, they are cheering ecstatically.

 

[EvaDK]

Trump's $100,000 'Swiss Made' gold watch may be made in China

https://www.hollywoodreporter.com/l...h-likely-made-in-china-overpriced-1236013728/

 

[Narz]

I think my life is worse because of it.

It's the best available bad option in present circumstances, but generally, I think we have moved far too much of life behind a screen.

I, the individual, can't really change that, because norms have moved away from face to face decidedly, but this shift hasn't really been socially healthy.

I actually partly attribute Trump to the consequences of that shift. Echo chambers reduce exposure to moderation via lack of contact with trusted community members, and a lack of a vibrant(or in some cases really any) social life tends to make people generally discontent, a negativity that finds an outlet in politics, amongst other places.

This, imo, is directly related to the increasing prevalence of apps, a problem creating some wild, unpredictable and wide ranging effects.

Someday I'm gonna not have a smartphone and get on the Internet once a month and live my life face to face getting dirt under my fingernails and all that.

For most people this is a cope dealing w a culture and physical world that's in free fall and what are we gonna do about it but at least we can have the illusion of staying informed, as if scrolling compulsivity, reading the thoughts of other addicts (and their dealers) is gonna give us what we need.

 

[Zardnaar]

Someday I'm gonna not have a smartphone and get on the Internet once a month and live my life face to face getting dirt under my fingernails and all that.

For most people this is a cope dealing w a culture and physical world that's in free fall and what are we gonna do about it but at least we can have the illusion of staying informed, as if scrolling compulsivity, reading the thoughts of other addicts (and their dealers) is gonna give us what we need.

I don't see a lot of the BS. Mostly because I don't engage.

A few forums, topics that specifically interest me.

On Facebook it's D&D stuff and cat stuff. I don't use block or ignore or whatever.

If you're *****ing about online negativity you've basically engaged it somewhere to see it.

 

[Narz]

I don't see a lot of the BS. Mostly because I don't engage.

A few forums, topics that specifically interest me.

On Facebook it's D&D stuff and cat stuff. I don't use block or ignore or whatever.

If you're *****ing about online negativity you've basically engaged it somewhere to see it.

I'm not specifically talking about negativity online as much as the addictive and shallow nature of online content (not all of course, I learn loads from Internet content but also get sucked into junk food Internet content like mls FB stuff and YouTube shorts) and interactions and how it steals engagement from people's real life communities.

 

[lymond]

Moderator Action: Back to topic please. Feel free to start another topic on the matter. - lymond

 

[Sommerswerd]

Apps are software. You're making forum posts on one such app, even if you're using a desktop PC.

You're technically right of course since "app" is just shorthand for "application" and a web-browser is an application, but I think that nowadays the word "app" is most commonly understood to specifically refer to cellphone applications as opposed to desktop applications.

As far as the election goes... Harris has been holding steady on 538 for the past month between a low of 2.4% ahead and a high of 3.3% ahead, with her sitting at 2.7% ahead as of this post. On RCP, for the last month Harris has held a lead the whole month, that has ranged from a low of 1.1% to a high of 2.2%, with her currently leading by 1.8% as of this post.

The next two potential big things on the horizon are the VP debate tonight and the Longshoremen's port strike that started in earnest today. Tim Walz is reportedly very nervous about the debate and does not consider himself any good at debating, while Vance is being touted as an excellent debater. The port strike is going to cause shortages and price hikes on all kinds of consumer goods. I'm guessing the strike will be brought up as a question in the debate.

 

[Kaitzilla]

The election nuke is just a day away now.

https://www.cnn.com/2024/09/30/business/ports-strike-deadline/index.html

A strike that shuts down the east and Gulf Coast (military supplies and passenger ships won't be affected) will cost billions of dollars per day?

Hopefully the Biden-Harris administration provides good leadership on this issue.

https://www.cnbc.com/2024/09/30/ports-strike-truckers-rails-billions-in-cargo-shutdown.html

Strike it is!

https://www.cnn.com/2024/10/01/business/us-port-workers-strike-tuesday/index.html

Nearly 50,000 members of the International Longshoremen’s Association (ILA) are on strike Tuesday against the nation’s East and Gulf Coast ports, choking off the flow of many of America’s imports and exports in what could become the country’s most disruptive work stoppage in decades.

President Biden can invoke the law at any time to force them back to work for 80 days in a one-time 'cooling off' period.

Here is the fantastically articulate leader of the 50,000 striking longshoremen Harold Daggett wearing a gold chain to explain what will happen.

Yup, they will work at about 30% speed if forced back to work heh.

 

[Birdjaguar]

Our October surprise.

 

[Remorseless1]

Maybe if the people who operate ports paid the East Coast/Gulf workers the same level as West Coast port workers, there wouldn't be a strike. During the Great Recession, workers agreed to wage freezes or even reductions to keep their employers from going out of business.

Time for the billionaire class to pay up.

 

[Voidwalkin]

President Biden can invoke the law at any time to force them back to work for 80 days in a one-time 'cooling off' period.

I feel like politically he shouldn't do that.

Unless there are meaningful price increases, the risk of frustrating workers who already believe the dems too academic is probably greater than the anger of people frustrated by price increases.

There's not really ah absolutely winning move, of course. How it goes when you're the man in charge.

 

[Sommerswerd]

President Biden can invoke the law at any time to force them back to work for 80 days in a one-time 'cooling off' period.

*90 days* IIRC, but yes he could theoretically do that.

I think it would be a very bad move to do that right before the election, because it will be portrayed as union busting, siding with the corporations, etc. A better move would probably be to come out in favor of the Longshoremen. If Biden can be seen as helping to negotiate an end to the strike, it will probably be more politically beneficial than forcing the Longshoremen back to work.

I think the timing of this strike is to force exactly that... Biden can't force them back to work and has to be seen as taking the side of the union, particularly with the election happening in just over a month.

 

[JollyRoger]

Maybe Trump can get egged into a Your Fired rant over the situation

 

[Sommerswerd]

I still laugh every time I see that "They're eating the dogs!" clip ... Trump is such a ridiculous buffoon. Its really preposterous that he was ever President and is actually running for President again as a major party nominee.

Meanwhile... 538 no longer has any poll in their aggregation that has Trump ahead. Harris is leading in all of the polls they are counting.

 

[Kaitzilla]

I'm not sure the dockworkers will be able to stop the automation of ports in future decades?

NAW CEO calls on Biden to end union's 'premeditated attack' on US economy: Locked 'back in the Stone Age'

National Association of Wholesaler-Distributors CEO Eric Hoplin criticized President Biden for refusing to intervene in the port strike by invoking the Taft-Hartley Act.

www.foxbusiness.com

Appearing on FOX Business, NAW head Eric Hoplin told Maria Bartiromo the union's push to ban automation at gates and for cranes moving containers and unloading cargo is "unrealistic."

"Look around the globe. Look at the Port of Shanghai in China, one of the busiest ports on the planet: fully automated cranes, fully autonomous vehicles, moving everything at lightning speed in China. Same thing in Singapore. Same thing at Rotterdam in the Netherlands. By the way, Rotterdam started moving to automation 30 years ago. We're already three decades behind," he said.

Unionized dockworkers at East and Gulf Coast ports contrarily argue a shift to automation would result in job loss.

It looks like this is the end result:

The big companies made $billions during COVID.
I imagine this is a major thing they want to spend all that money upon?

The Teamsters issued a strong press-release supporting the striking dock-workers.

https://finance.yahoo.com/news/teamsters-stand-international-longshoremens-association-021200854.html