Yes, and critically Senate Republicans, 38% of senate republicans would have to go against Trump to move the needle, and if that hasn’t happened by now, it’s hard to imagine a scenario where that would happen.

But is it an overperform? Looking back to 2011, the strongest performance by a GOP for this specific seat is 38%, and it was this election, the last GOP candidate had 18% before this…

For whatever reason, local and presidential elections can very much swing differently, and in this example it clearly looks like you can’t read much of anything into the results since it has been different from presidential outcomes already…

This doesn’t seem to be much of a narrative that the post wants it to be…

One, this is a state seat, nothing to do with the federal government.

Second, it’s a seat that has been thoroughly blue looks like. GOP hadn’t even bothered to run a candidate in over a decade, and then they only got 19% of the vote. The GOP candidate showed 38% this time around, which is actually stronger performance than they had before.

Per an article “have historically supported Democrats at the state and local level, but have shifted toward Republicans in federal elections”, this is a continuation. If anything, concerning that this is the strongest GOP result for that seat, even though they still lost…

In terms of special elections, the three that are scheduled are pretty much the only ones we are going to see, and all signs point to 2 going GOP and 1 going democrat, resulting in a 220:215 in favor of republicans. Even if they flipped the two GOP seats then it’s 218:217. More resignations/deaths could shift things more, but no more special elections since it’s so close to the general election now.

Even if, hypothetically, 10 republicans just up and resigned and the vacancies gave the democrats the majority… then what? They do another toothless impeachment? They shake their head disapprovingly at Trump deploying ICE to strategic polling places?

You’d need to see 2/3rds of the senate be willing to go against Trump before anything could realistically stop the worst of the Trump presidency.

Well, they are helping out with that one…

Stewart would not run, and perhaps for the best. Whoever holds that position will have to be disappointing in some regards due to reality, and Stewart may be better only soeaking to the aspects he excels at without owning the stuff that would tarnish his image and legacy.

While I think, technically, strictly correct, the big question wild be how much they could realistically “save”, and in such a hypothetical, would it really be significantly more encouraging results.

Our, realistically speaking we are generally already looking at that reality, with people putting aside a relative pittance but still feeling that they live paycheck to paycheck, largely ignoring anything that goes toward retirement.

I get it, I’ve had relatives buy stupid expensive pickups or muscle cars with obscene payment plans while barely keeping their heads above water, but even the more careful ones barely scrape by.

We only do it in front of our kids to make them cringe

The ICE guys still get paid:

While there is some FY2026 funding for ICE, the agency received a $75 billion infusion of funding over the next decade through the already-passed “Big Beautiful Bill,” so a lapse in funding at DHS would not cease operations there.

Even if this funding doesn’t show up, ICE will still have more funds than the FBI.

Note that this doesn’t impact ICE, as they were so special they already got massive funding independent of this discussion.

Hence why the GOP doesn’t care that much.

We have seen pop media people move over, Trump, Schwarzenegger, Reagan, but at least so far it’s not been, ironically enough, political celebrities. They seem to prefer commentating from the sidelines rather than being in the thick of things. Easier to always be ‘correct’ when you are not actually accountable for your ideas.

Some of the reactions are some in an effective way, and I assume this example is one of them. The problem being evidently they didn’t think any what might be in big base64 blobs in the PDF, and I guess some of these folks somehow had their email encoded as PDF, which seems bonkers…

Want really his trajectory anyway.

Way easier to just cash in from the sidelines and take the profits without the potential accountability of actually being in any office.

Most celebrity commentators never go anywhere near an actual office. Whether they be left or right.

I suppose the question is what upkeep people get hit with that a renter doesn’t. Housekeeping isn’t a renter amenity and landscaping is not an amenity when you rent a house.

Maybe the house is older or something… In my car the three things were a leaky water heater, a roof (which was big, but 15 years and insurance partially covered), and the central air conditioning falling. Day to day haven’t had plumbing or electrical problems. I suppose I’ve had to replace a few parts of my toilets, but just flappers which are like a 15 second job and a few dollars and fill valves, which take about 5 minutes and are maybe 15 dollars. Some folks seem to think that every weekend there’s another repair, but for me it can be months and months before even a minor thing like a light bulb or a toilet flapper needs attention.

I would imagine it’s nowadays at the point where employment verification is automatically fired off to some vetting agency automatically during the process where software does all the cross referencing and anomalies would be caught and reported.

I don’t think they have to go all private investigator to get basic employment verification from the actual employers anymore.

PLEASE

That’s why you have to keep it modest at ‘regional manager’, significant enough to be useful looking, insignificant enough so you can’t possibly be to blame for the downfall of the company.

I will say that as an owner, I have a lot more disposable income and pretty much all the free time I had as a renter.

I paid of my mortgage early, so now that’s just on the ground.

House maintenance is a thing, but it’s not as scary as people sometimes act like it is. Cleaning is far more work than maintenance/repairs and I had to do that either way. I have had three relatively big repair bills that I had to pay for, but that’s over decades, and I could have paid a company some monthly fee if I wanted more predictability (though the home warranty companies tend to be scammy). I have a lawn to mow, but that’s more a function of detached housing rather than renting/owning, renters of detached housing have to mow their lawn too, and a friend who owns a townhouse doesn’t mow but has to pay big HOA fees that include landscaping services.

But absolutely, between closing costs and interest rates and risk of the housing market having a short-term dip, you aren’t going to reliably and meaningfully gain equity in under 5 or 4 years. One could make a persuasive argument that a different system wouldn’t have that much overhead to a purchase, but within the system we have, that’s the timeframe where owning doesn’t make any sense.

Of course, that said, there needs to be healthy choice in the market, so that people aren’t stuck renting when it doesn’t make sense for their situation.

He was pretty milquetoast, but he got saddled with the post-covid ‘wtf’ the economy went through with shortages and price hikes combined with impacts from Russia’s invasion…

None of it reasonably Biden’s fault, but he got stuck with it happening on his watch so lot’s of people need to blame something vaguely controllable so they blame and vote against the president.

Presidents are usually as likely to be defined by their circumstances as their actual actions or inactions.

You can pay people for maintenance and upkeep. Like everything what you have to be careful of scammy companies, but you also have to be wary of scammy landlords.

I think if you are staying for a long time in one residence, you really are better off owning it, and buying services for it. Hell you can hire the exact same maintenance service that a landlord uses, that they pay for out of your rent.

If you have temporary need though, renting is certainly the best option.