CoffeeAddict

Right? I never quite understood who it was actually for, either. I mean, notepad makes sense, but wordpad just seemed like a worse version of MS Word.

I guess it could have been for those who needed something more sophisticated than notepad but didn’t want to spend money to get Word?

Idk, that’s the only reason I can think of right now lol.

Interesting. I do not have a mastodon account, but I wonder if this is not why boosting a comment or post might accelerate federation? I have noticed that (some) of my own comments or posts do not show on other instances unless I boost them myself, which not something I prefer doing as upvoting/boosting my own post seems kinda weird…

Just from quickly poking around, I think Boost only alters the comment order for kbin instances. Lemmy only seems affected by upvotes & downvotes. Lemmy also seems to give each post or comment an automatic upvote (or maybe that is just lemmy.world, idk), whereas kbin does not do this. I am also not sure if the automatic upvote transfers between kbin and Lemmy. This all being said, I could also just be completely wrong and misinterpreting things lol.

As a side-note, I can only seem to get my posts and comments to show if I boost my own post… I am not sure if that is just a kbin thing or something unique to my particular instance.

I’ve not been to this tower, but the whole skyscraper-swaying thing totally weirded me out when I first learned about it. It all seemed so counterintuitive at first, but the fact these things are actually engineered to sway to withstand the wind loads on them is nothing short of remarkable.

Just think about it - the entire design, the architecture, the engineering, the columns, the floor plates, expansion joints (I presume), etc. are all designed to sway within a certain tolerance. These towers are so normal to see in our cities, but they really are hallmarks of human achievement.

I feel like there should be a way to hold politicians like Tuberville in contempt. Not only is his cause complete bullshit, he is allowing domestic politics to get in the way of national security.

Of course, endangering national security seems to be a part of the republicans platform these days.

The Bible Belt I can believe, though I am not sure about the Rust Belt. It may have been true in 2016, but I think the 2020 election paints a different picture.

When I think of the Rust Belt, I think of places like Detroit, Cleveland, Buffalo, Milwaukee, Pittsburgh and St. Louis. Of those cities, it seems only Missouri is hardcore republican (despite St. Louis’s and Kansas City’s best efforts). Michigan seems to have swung pretty left (though there are definitely still red areas), Pennsylvania voted blue and Wisconsin is on the verge of undoing a-lot of republican gerrymandering. Ohio looks like a red-leaning mixed bag, but it doesn’t strike me as a republican bastion.

Granted, most of these are major battleground states with both parties in almost equal numbers, but their conservative populations don’t seem to be anymore Trump-oriented than other states.

I actually agree with your assessment, though I was specifically referring to the debates, not the elections cycles themselves.

The democrats (and the left in general) had a propensity for hyperbole that labeled McCain and Romney as dire threats to democracy. At the time, I think thought of this as a viable tactic to win the election (in a way not too dissimilar from LBJ’s “Daisy” campaign ad against Goldwater). However, it essentially turned them into the “Boy Who Cried Wolf” when Trump came around, because huge swaths simply refused to believe them.

So, I do actually agree that democrats helped to create Trump, or at least helped to create an environment that allowed him to rise. How we stop Trump now though is beyond me.

Yeah, it is very disheartening to see. I still remember going back and watching previous debates before Trump, and they were all so civil! Even in the most heated moments, the candidates were actually discussing ideas and policy!

I cannot wait for Trump to fade away from the political scene. It’s just so sad to see how he turns everything into a debate about him.

Just based on Queens, NY, I think the republicans in NYC capitalized on some of the things Democrats “beat around the bush” or avoided talking about. The Asian American population in NY is very anti-crime, and the dems perceived inaction on Anti-Asian Hate created an opening some I think local republicans capitalized on. Even the current mayor is a former cop.

Now, how they got to be die-hard Trumpers is not something I understand. He did, after all, cause Asian Americans a-lot of grief with his whole “China Virus” BS during the pandemic…

I am pretty liberal, but I have a-lot of family members who are republican and live in the midwest and they feel like they’re in the same boat as you.

I do have to wonder where he gets all his support.

Same. I still have it installed alongside Alien Blue as part of my Reddit Graveyard. RIP.

I will absolutely be biting my nails lol.

The food and water thing is so ridiculous and just piles onto a series of laws designed to make it difficult for urban Americans to vote. Wasn’t it Texas that decided there should only be one polling center per county? I’m not sure if they’ve actually enacted it, but good luck voting in person if you live in Austin!

Just the fact they feel the need to make it more difficult to vote speaks volumes about the mindset of republican leadership. I don’t think their party is really growing, but I think the smaller they get the more underhanded they will become in their efforts to cling to power.

Idk, sometimes I really wish I could be one of those people who is blissfully unaware of politics and the world at large. They really seem to be happier in their ignorance.

This, I think, is pretty true. But still, its incredibly foolish. They could not control Trump the first time, why on earth do they think they could control him the second time?

Unless they are banking on him being locked up with the key being tossed, and using that to galvanize the base around a candidate they can better control? Either way though, peddling these types of lies is just so, so dangerous. They are more-or-less setting up a large chunk of the nation to believe that the democrats are stealing the election and going to install a communist dictatorship (lol) and the only way to “save the country” is to violently take it back.

And if Trump actually does win again? Well, then the other half the country is correctly convinced their has been a criminal takeover of the nation’s executive branch. How does that end? What even happens if Trump is convicted after taking office?

I wish more republicans would understand that supporting Trump is going to seriously weaken the US and create instability. Even if the democrats were “unfairly targeting him” (to be clear, I believe he is guilty) there is just no way he can unify the country and make it stronger. Half the country will hate his guts, and that alone should disqualify him.

Yeah, this is an unfortunate advantage republicans have over democrats - their constituents really do fall in line, even if they don’t like their candidate. Democrats constituents fall in love, and will refuse to vote if it is not their preferred candidate.

In fact, the only time I feel like democrats won without falling in love with their candidate was (ironically) Biden. I think he won because people were desperate for a sense of normalcy and to have new leadership because the Trump administration failed so spectacularly in their handling of the pandemic.

This time though, there is no pandemic to boost the democrats. I firmly believe that Trump probably would have won again were it bot for the pandemic, and I am worried he will win again.

Does anybody else hope (emphasis on hope lol) they’re just saying this out of spite? Perhaps they know he lost, and are just saying this because they know it will “piss off the libs?”

Maybe it’s naive, but while I am pretty liberal a-lot of my family is (unfortunately) republican and they all admit Trump lost, fair and square. They also say they’re sick of him, wish he would drop out of the race, and allow another, younger republican to be nominated. They’ve also not been contacted by any of these pollsters.

Admittedly, this is just my experience with a very narrow slice of republicans; outside my family, I don’t really interact with too many.

Thoughts? Am I just fortunate to not have to interact with the Trump cult on a daily basis? Or is the US just screwed? lol