Hold On To Your Butts: Tuesday Open Thread

LATE ADDITION: One our own lost her husband earlier today. She has had the courage and kindness to share their journey over the past months in our comments section. You have supported them through these hard days, and made sure they knew we were with them. This is the best of our website- our community. Spare a thought for GumbyGirl in the midst of tonight’s chaos.

 

Whelp, here we are. Four years of anticipation, anxiety and effort, crammed into one night.

That’s right: the Olympics kicks off in…

Wait, what?

Didn’t we just do this?

Fuuuck….

Fine. By the time you read this, polls will have started closing. Millions of complete fucking idiots will cast their votes for a brain-rotted rapist. His following of idiots and fascists (and both!) are openly enjoying the prospect of inflicting massive human suffering on innocent children and executing their political opponents.

Our best hope is that people with any amount of decency slightly outnumber them.

Normally I would apologize for my bluntness and making some of you feel bad for your political choices. But the only modification, disclaimer or softening I offer tonight is that my views are my own, and do not represent the official position of DoorFliesOpen, nor necessarily those of any other owner or author.

Feel free to cuss me out in the comments. Hopefully the madness gripping you and your party breaks like a fever.

There were some NFL trades today. The only one I care about was WR Jonathan Mingo going from Carolina to Dallas for a fourth rounder. On balance, Dallas paid more for Mingo than they got for Amari Cooper. That makes me happy.

 

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The Right Reverend Electric Mayhem
Feared conqueror; scholar; poet; revered holy man; professional raconteur; soldier of fortune; aloof yet thorough lover; bandit; blazing gypsy speedboat. I have been called some of these things.
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Doktor Zymm

So I found a (tiny) bright side. The dollar is already getting stronger as markets price in tariffs and inflationary economic policies, so the next year is a great time to travel internationally. Go to the Christmas markets in Europe and buy all the things while your money still has value!

NotShogunButShogun

Welcome to the Fall, one and all
https://youtu.be/ZJ7sPS4yYvE?si=7Iwrx80kNwKzpg-c

Redshirt

May not be the right time to play hindsight, but here are my three reasons why Trump won and Harris lost:

  1. Its the Economy, Stupid. Prices are still higher than they were four years ago. Even if things were showing signs of progress, people were still mad about it and wanted someone to punish, which is usually the party that is in power. When Harris said on “The View” that she wouldn’t change anything that Bided did, she put here stamp of approval on the economy. Which brings me to…
  2. Harris was and still is a flawed candidate. Setting aside racial and gender implications, the fact of the matter is she did win any states in the primaries…that is the 2020 Democratic Primaries. Even when got the attention and momentum in the first debate back then, she wasn’t able to capitalize on it and dropped out before the first contest. In this election, she got the early momentum but wasn’t able to take advantage of it. Her messaging was less “vote for me” and more “don’t vote for him”. Based on the number of votes for Trump being steady and Harris’ being less than Biden four years ago, people listed. Which brings me to…
  3. Democratic Party needs to do some soul searching. The Democratic Party is in disarray. With the exception of Barack Obama, every nominee has been an older person. Even in 2024, they went with the obviously old guy because they had nobody who could replace him and was forced to turn to Harris when Biden faltered. Their gut instinct is always to go further left, which is taking away from the middle of America and reducing the size of their “tent”. Progress and change, while beneficial to society, can be scary if done sudden and large. I’ve made jokes about the Republican Party needed to be broken down and rebuilt, but after the results of this election that is almost a Realigning Election, maybe the Democratic Party needs to take a long look in the mirror to figure out who it is, where the American people are, and what needs to change for the former so they can improve the latter.
Doktor Zymm

Dems will move right, just like they’ve done after every election they’ve lost since the 70s

WCS

That’s why she’s a Doktorb.

A center-left populist message would resonate. That seems to be a big takeaway here. but that will fly completely over their heads.

If they keep Schumer, and to a lesser extent, Jefferies as the Party leadership on the Hill, expect more of the same.

In other words, expect more of the same.

Redshirt

,

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Doktor Zymm

I mean, they are wrong since they think Trump’s economic policies aren’t insane and dangerous, both things are true here

ballsofsteelandfury

Harris was a deeply flawed candidate that only got as many votes as she got because she was running against Trump.

I do wonder if Biden is sitting in the White House right now with a little smile on his face thinking, “That’s what you get for pushing me out”.

ThurberHerder

Harris was and still is a flawed candidate.

Whenever I see people say this, I wonder if they have even seen the other guy lately

Sharkbait

Me trying to get anything done this morning: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=qX-YfuVQmX8

WCS

We’ll do this, everyone. If there’s one thing this place has demonstrated over the last decade, we take care of each other.

Love yinz, and sorry about my dumbass Commonwealth.

Heartfelt thoughts, condolences, and prayers (yeah, for real), Gumby clan.

It’s raining here for the first time in two weeks. Even the weather knows.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I think I am going to have to limit my daily intake of the internet to this site and stock prices.

blaxabbath

Maybe The Producers have some content brewing related to surfing.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Point Break 2: Breakpoint

Sharkbait

Ive already nuked 3 friends of mine from my instagram feed.

Doktor Zymm

There’ll be some money to be made before the trade wars and inflation really kick in. It’s just a matter of how long to ride the bubble and how much to hedge. I give it a year, but I’ll probably look into TIPS and I-bonds now, as well as maybe some forex bonds. Mid next year I might go for options hedges, though hopefully there’s a way to do that without rebalancing daily

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I’ve been trying to figure out what the bubble is going to be. Conventional wisdom says AI, but is that enough to drag the rest of the market down with it?

Doktor Zymm

Nah, it’s more macro than that, although AI is not a bad place to start. I think it’ll be energy and maybe chip manufacture. Those are two areas where demand is skyrocketing (largely because of AI) and where China has a big head start in manufacturing. Biden was working on building up US capabilities in those areas through subsidies and targeted tariffs, but Trump has promised to shut all that down. We’ll fall behind and we’ll end up with a dependence on China to maintain our energy infrastructure after we started a trade war with them.

ballsofsteelandfury

I think it was a good decision to delay my malt liquor post until after the election…

It will come in handy for y’all.

Last edited 14 days ago by ballsofsteelandfury
Redshirt

(yawn)

I had this horrible dream. And you were there, and you were there, and you…

blaxabbath

Ashlii Babbitt wakes up in Dumb Bitch Heaven: “Did we win? Did we do it? Did we stop Joe Biden?”

Man: “Well, no. But next cycle we beat Kamala Harris.”

Babbitt: “What? Kamala Harris was the only person I’d ever vote for not named Donald!”

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blaxabbath

I’m making up/hearing reports Russia hacked the voting machines…..

JimU

Fuck what a terrible day between this and Gumby Girl’s husband. I’ve been trying to sleep for hours but can’t. I went downstairs so I wouldn’t wake up my wife. I’m literally shaking right now.

blaxabbath

“You can just get a new wife now!”

-47

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

Right there with you, I slept maybe four hours last night. Just waiting for it to get light so I can take down my Harris flag and hang my American flag upside down.

NotShogunButShogun

bk109

Wait, I just read the actual post…
Thoughts and prayers to GumbyGirl 🙁

NotShogunButShogun

You enjoy what you birthed. This gets carried to term.

Doktor Zymm

I do think they could have messaged differently. Trump basically makes the argument that he’ll make things better for you by hurting some people you don’t even know. Most people are willing to hurt random, far away people for personal gain, they just don’t want to be reminded that it’s a shitty thing to do. If you point out that it’s shitty they aren’t going to change their mind, they’re just going to get defensive. If you can provide a convincing alternative that provides just as much gain, or even more gain, and by the way you can get it without being shitty, then obviously people will go for that. But we just told people not to be shitty.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

If you can provide a convincing alternative that provides just as much gain, or even more gain, and by the way you can get it without being shitty, then obviously people will go for that.

Unfortunately, this theory breaks down when you encounter an opponent who – without the least bit of substantiation – will unabashedly promise 50X whatever gain you are trying to persuade them you can provide.

Horatio Cornblower

Harris lost and Trump won because this is where America is right now.

It’s not great, and my plan right now is to keep my head down and try to find ways to profit off all the idiots that can’t see what’s coming with Trump.

On that note, how does one go about shorting the entire economy?

blaxabbath

“Pump and dump.

I like your head down, work-forward approach to this though.”

-JJ Watt on his elliptical trainer

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

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NotShogunButShogun

America: You think we’d Do the Right Thing?
World: Why didn’t you?

Doktor Zymm

Eh, the rest of the world isn’t doing the right thing either for the most part

Horatio Cornblower

Yeah, I was trying to make a list of countries I’d be willing to move to that aren’t currently hard-right or trending hard right, and I came up with Ireland and maybe Norway.

And don’t see UK, because they’re currently untangling from 14 years of similar dipshit government and already mad at the Labour crew for not fixing everything in 3 months.

bk109

So, uh, guys, you good in there? Not doing something or someone you’ll regret in the morning?

Sharkbait

I started drafting Fridays post. I sent it to someone to proofread it/evaluate it since If the post goes live as is, it’s gonna piss off some family members. I need the restraint right now

bk109

I was going to say – “Well, you can at least drink yourself into a pleasant stupor”, but … election day and the day after aren’t public holidays over in the US, right? Then again – showing up “exacerbated” may actually be socially acceptable today

Sharkbait

That’s putting it mildly. It’s more of a venting/rage post at family that voted Trump. Even though it’s in the Northeast so it shouldn’t matter in the grand scheme of things, it’s calling them out on the principles they directly voted for and saying some not nice things about them.

bk109

Eh, as someone whose got an unpopular outsiders’ POV (I’m not pro either candidate) … uh, “just don’t go too overboard”, ’cause it’s a pity to ruin relations with family over a (to my knowledge) irrelevant votes (at least, again, based on my understanding on how your electoral system is structured).
… Unless you hate them by default, in that case “lock and load”

Unsurprised

I don’t give a shit either way.

Buddy Cole's Halftime Show

I open with the disclaimer that I have never voted for a winning candidate.

Crunching the preliminary calculus, Harris flopped in most states even the ones she won. Her performance in NYC was the worst by a Democrat since Dukakis, and while I can’t find the exact tweets Trump won Starr County, Texas (the most Hispanic county in the country and the first time a Republican won there since the 1890s). Even in states like New Jersey the race was far closer in a state Biden dominated 4 years ago.

So the Democrats are right back where they were in 2016 except this defeat is going to be even worse as Trump is projected to take the popular vote. Polls are useless and you can’t take any demographic for granted anymore.

Dunstan

Alright, there’s no point in me staying up to see if they call it for Trump in an hour or five hours.

fleshwound_NPG

the good news: nobody will EVER listen to nancy pelosi about anything again after this

Unsurprised

False. Her stock picks will still magically all be winners.

Redshirt

This is what we get for putting our faith in the Democratic Party.

Gatoraids

the official party of the Prevent Defense

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

I don’t think it’s worth pinning blame for the results of this election on Kamala Harris, or the Democratic Party. I don’t think there’s anything they could have done differently, or better, that would have changed things. The simple fact is that America *chose* Donald Trump, for reasons that are completely unfathomable to me but apparently make sense to enough voters that he was able to win the election. Harris ran an excellent campaign, and he ran a terrible one, and in the end none of it mattered, because we are a deeply disturbed nation that has plunged straight back down the path it chose in 2016.

Rikki-Tikki-Deadly

The hardest thing about this for me is that all the factors that should predict electoral success – favorability, fundraising, volunteer activity, enthusiasm – ended up meaning nothing. Josh Marshall over at TPM talks about how there’s a danger that people will simply withdraw from the struggle to demand and build a better government for themselves, but after tonight, it’s very hard to see what the point of engaging is. None of that stuff moves the needle with my countrymen. It was all just a waste of time and effort.

fleshwound_NPG

you wanna move the needle? you want racist hoosiers to vote for a black man? take away their wallets 2008-style

hey, whaddya know, guess what is likely gonna happen in about 4 years or so…

blaxabbath

Sounds like you need to focus on your family —

Raider Nation.

Last edited 15 days ago by blaxabbath
Unsurprised

Harris is the only person you can blame because it all rested on her to win the election. Voters didn’t owe her anything, and she and her surrogates spent the entire campaign telling critically important parts of her base to eat shit.

ThurberHerder

A take so simple it has to be true /s

fleshwound_NPG

hopefully, they learn their lesson to NEVER nominate someone that has DIRECT ties to a problematic, controversial old grab ass ex/current president (bill clinton, joe biden)

obama did not have that (biden was not president yet)

fleshwound_NPG

kerry did not have this problem either, but the gop were smart enough to start a war pre-election.

two, even!

ThurberHerder

“DIRECT ties to a problematic, controversial old grab ass ex/current president”

Like Trump?

ThurberHerder

I had faith in the American electorate. I’m actually not sure why

blaxabbath

You were just bored.

Sharkbait

Cool. I can’t even be on a steady LSD diet for the next 4(ish) years

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Gatoraids

can move to Oregon

Sharkbait

Oddly enough, one of Mrs. Sharkbait’s best friends moved from Honolulu to Oregon for her husband’s job. There’s a not zero chance I’ll be there at some point soon

2Pack

Condolences Gumby Girl.
Say not in grief he is no more
But live in thankfulness that he was