2018 Midterm Election Thread

[Fresno Bob]

again, one of the main reasons I've stuck here is because I get to hear opinions so far off of what I deem "normal human discord". My peer group is smart and successful and broad and diverse. I view the Sports Bar in someways as a freakshow of biblical literalism, racial intolerance, selfish conservatism,antiscience, immigrant fearmongering, and furious Trumpitude that I am seriously not exposed to on a regular basis. I think that staring into the abyss, seeing the monsters, and smelling the fear to be something positive

and in many ways, this is my greatest flaw, taking pleasure in the pathetic characters of this place. I've met many of you in person, but a good chunk of you I have zero interest in meeting, as you are like cartoon characters to me, sad clowns mostly, but cartoons of sad lonely selfish angry passed-by manchildren. It is a weakness of mine that I take pleasure in your pathetic babblings. Harsh, sure, but true. Those that have met me know that I am exactly the person I present here. I only write in my true voice, and if many of you do as well, I feel for you and those close to you.

[Fresno Bob]

I think the inability to see the world through the perception of others is one of our worst issues right now. It's disappointing when people see a differing opinion and call it "stupidity" rather than realizing that we aren't all the same, we all come from different backgrounds and different life experiences, and that it's valid to have a differing opinion. There's extremely intelligent individuals on every side of the aisle.

If you really find those that you are conversing with here as stupid, why bother participating? Maybe this isn't the place for you. Something to consider.

Ken, I'll say it plainly, I respect your baseball analytic knowledge and nothing else about you. I don't know you, but I don't like the person that you present yourself as here.

[cardboardbox]

dude, I actually truely feel bad for you, you are like a sad character in a russian novel that I can't stop reading if only to make myself feel better about not being you. You'd be funnier if you weren't such a tragic selfish virgin

Mrs Box says you're funny when you're mad.

[Fresno Bob]

Mrs Box says you're funny when you're mad.

more sad than mad right now, but I'm always fucking funny, it's part of my charm

[nullnor]

you guys should've seen all the people in my life. not once have i ever been given good advice. but mostly don't give me any because they don't know what to do with me. the last 15 years my co-workers were unbelievable. seeing that i live in the northeast, half of them were elated when Trump won. my boss sat there beaming when i realized he won and told him. he was over 60 and he thought if the earth stopped spinning there's be no gravity and we'd float off it. they mostly buy into the anti-immigrant thing even tho we're as far away from Mexico. they think people get rich off welfare. they buy into all the conspiracies, the federal reserve, chem trails. another co-worker will say shit like what about Sandyhook. that guy was actually smart. but conspiracies was a form of culture for him. surprisingly he was one of the only ones that almost never did any backstabbing. he got kicked from websites like above top secret. two of them were what i can say were sociopaths. they'd talk about something sad and you can see they can't or don't know who to react feel, and then actually burst out laughing sometimes. another co-worker was the meanest 65 year old woman you'd ever meet. i couldn't leave her alone with the nerdy temp because she would bully him.

but i think this is normal for the world. and i am no prize myself. i call you guys my smart internet friends. and i mean all of you. just the fact that i've been able to be myself here, and people pretty much understand me.

i don't think people are smart in the world. lately i've been joking that it's really just a few smart people in the world that really know what they are doing and everyone else (like me) are just along for the ride.

like my cat for example. 3 different veterinarians noticed a heart condition. never checked for hyperthyroid condition, didn't check her blood pressure or use beta blockers at first. i failed too but that was their job.

i don't mean to be negative but i gave people far too much benefit of the doubt during my 50 years. i need to figure out how to change my situation. i want to be around successful people.

[nullnor]

i have learned to laugh it off tho. mostly when playing video games and watch all the tragic things people do strategy. and that's rubbed off on me lately in real life. it's like when you turn 40-50 yrs old, everything comes together and the world makes sense. and it's a pretty silly place.

[Redbirds Fan]

again, one of the main reasons I've stuck here is because I get to hear opinions so far off of what I deem "normal human discord". My peer group is smart and successful and broad and diverse. I view the Sports Bar in someways as a freakshow of biblical literalism, racial intolerance, selfish conservatism,antiscience, immigrant fearmongering, and furious Trumpitude that I am seriously not exposed to on a regular basis. I think that staring into the abyss, seeing the monsters, and smelling the fear to be something positive

Wow, Pt. 1

[Redbirds Fan]

and in many ways, this is my greatest flaw, taking pleasure in the pathetic characters of this place. I've met many of you in person, but a good chunk of you I have zero interest in meeting, as you are like cartoon characters to me, sad clowns mostly, but cartoons of sad lonely selfish angry passed-by manchildren. It is a weakness of mine that I take pleasure in your pathetic babblings. Harsh, sure, but true. Those that have met me know that I am exactly the person I present here. I only write in my true voice, and if many of you do as well, I feel for you and those close to you.

Wow, Pt. 2

[revo]

Fresno offered up himself as a sacrifice, but I will decline.

It's OK to strongly voice opinions in here, but please try to refrain from making anything "very" personal. Carry on.

[frae]

So where are we now as more votes keep getting counted.

CA 39 and NY 22 look like seats that will go for the Democrats which will push them 133.

UT 4 is either a tossup or lean R. Hard to tell what kind of votes are still out there. Love leads by less than 500 votes.

CA 21 the called race I keep coming back to is either a tossup or lean R at this point. Cox is within 1700 now and the outstanding votes should go in his favor the rest of the way. The question is now can het get enough?

TX 23 GA 7 and NY 27 continue to look like likely R's at this point.

So 233-200 (I am moving CA 21 off called as I agree with Nate Silver at this point if you are sticking to that as called you are just being stubborn and hoping Valado holds on) with 2 races that I think that will get us to our final number.

Kemp won the gov. in GA over Abrams. It was a good showing by her and I hope she considers making a senate run in two years.

DeSantis will beat Gillum and baring some shocking recount numbers Scott beats Nelson. Scott won by about 13K and DeSantis by about 35K. I will be curious to see what the impact of the 1.5 million people who will get their voting rights back will be in 2020. Based on the last few election cycles FL has moved more pink than purple, but maybe this influx of voters pushes it back a bit.

MS run off - Hyde-Smith is not a very good candidate so far. She had a blunder with her comment on hanging. Probably worse than that was the child like refusal to answer any questions about something that clearly deserved more than her tepid press release. She now has video saying this...

"And then they remind me that there’s a lot of liberal folks in those other schools who maybe we don’t want to vote,” she says in the video. “Maybe we want to make it just a little more difficult. And I think that’s a great idea.”

Now again I don't think any of this is going to swing this from likely or solid R to in play, but her habit of saying things that make the news in a negative way while campaigning open the chance that she says something really dumb that does open it up. She hasn't held office outside of MS before (edit basically I mean she hasn't run for Congress before though she did win a statewide position in MS as Agriculture Commish) and she is probably under more scrutiny than she has ever faced. Fun fact she was a Democrat in MS state senate in 1999. She held that office as a democrat until the year 2010 when she switched parties. With no other elections going on she has the spotlight to herself, but it is MS so this is probably a moot point.

[Hornsby]

Fresno offered up himself as a sacrifice, but I will decline.

It's OK to strongly voice opinions in here, but please try to refrain from making anything "very" personal. Carry on.

I thought that was what the new forum was all about, honestly expressing opinions, even though they might happen to be personal. Do I like the way that Fresno said what he said? Not particularly, but he said it in all honesty, and that's all I can ask from a person. BUT, I don't disagree with some of what he said.

Now, it can either tear this place down, or maybe, just maybe, make some people look into the mirror and take a genuine assessment about their beliefs and the way that they may act.

I too have been blessed to work in an environment that fosters forward thinking, rather than falling back into a comfort zone of intentional ignorance. It's a true blessing to sometimes be forced to look into that abyss and perhaps see yourself.

Lets learn from this, and maybe grow a bit. Conflict isn't a bad thing, neither is honesty.

[Fresno Bob]

you guys should've seen all the people in my life. not once have i ever been given good advice. but mostly don't give me any because they don't know what to do with me. the last 15 years my co-workers were unbelievable. seeing that i live in the northeast, half of them were elated when Trump won. my boss sat there beaming when i realized he won and told him. he was over 60 and he thought if the earth stopped spinning there's be no gravity and we'd float off it. they mostly buy into the anti-immigrant thing even tho we're as far away from Mexico. they think people get rich off welfare. they buy into all the conspiracies, the federal reserve, chem trails. another co-worker will say shit like what about Sandyhook. that guy was actually smart. but conspiracies was a form of culture for him. surprisingly he was one of the only ones that almost never did any backstabbing. he got kicked from websites like above top secret. two of them were what i can say were sociopaths. they'd talk about something sad and you can see they can't or don't know who to react feel, and then actually burst out laughing sometimes. another co-worker was the meanest 65 year old woman you'd ever meet. i couldn't leave her alone with the nerdy temp because she would bully him.

but i think this is normal for the world. and i am no prize myself. i call you guys my smart internet friends. and i mean all of you. just the fact that i've been able to be myself here, and people pretty much understand me.

i don't think people are smart in the world. lately i've been joking that it's really just a few smart people in the world that really know what they are doing and everyone else (like me) are just along for the ride.

like my cat for example. 3 different veterinarians noticed a heart condition. never checked for hyperthyroid condition, didn't check her blood pressure or use beta blockers at first. i failed too but that was their job.

i don't mean to be negative but i gave people far too much benefit of the doubt during my 50 years. i need to figure out how to change my situation. i want to be around successful people.

Don't get all crazy Doc Brown, we don't really understand you either, but personally, I'm enthralled by you!

[nullnor]

Don't get all crazy Doc Brown, we don't really understand you either, but personally, I'm enthralled by you!

i am going to buy a Delorean someday. you know there's scientist that is actually trying to build a time machine. he's using like 10,000 lasers to try to bend space and cause enough frame dragging to try to send single particles back in time. i don't know if it will work but i think i'm getting a better understanding of the idea. i think it is possible.

[frae]

National house vote up to +7.7 for Democrats and will continue to climb...

https://twitter.com/redistrict/status/1063876897338257408?s=21

And a Nate Silver tweet...

“Assuming it gets up into the ~8.5 range, Democrats are also on track to have the largest House popular vote margin by either party in a midterm since 1986, when they it by 9.9 points. D's did win it by 10.6 points in 2008, but that was a presidential year.”

[Ken]

My peer group is smart and successful and broad and diverse. I view the Sports Bar in someways as a freakshow of biblical literalism, racial intolerance, selfish conservatism,antiscience, immigrant fearmongering, and furious Trumpitude that I am seriously not exposed to on a regular basis.

Wow, if you see this place as racially intolerant or half the things you posted above, you lead a very, very sheltered life. And it's honestly got to be a joke that you call your peer group diverse if you are as dumbfounded by opposing opinions as you seem to be.

The opinions expressed here are pretty mild relative to what's going on in the real world. The fact that you are so taken aback by the generally mild views is what's most surprising, actually. It suggests that those "diverse" peers you have likely aren't very diverse (and perhaps not as intelligent as you seem to think if they all just follow the crowd and none of them express individual, unique opinions).