Skin

I heard the 2022 map for Senate is very favorable to Democrats. They should do all they possibly can to pick up seats because 2024 is going to be rough. 

1 minute ago, Khan said:

Pardon me, but why does it matter what Joe Manchin has to say about, well, anything?

 

He's the most powerful player in the Senate now that Democrats control the house. He is the most Republican of all the Senate Democrats by far. 

I would say even with Castiel's confession of love, that is a very specific way to view the scene in that what Castiel is referring to is romantic love instead of familial love, which is kind of the problem. Fans of that pairing refuse to consider or think about anything outside of a romantic or sexual perspective when it comes to their ship. Even when the show has told them time and time again that no, that is not what is happening here. I am all for a death to the author perspectives, artists don't have control over their work or how people interpret it after their art work is released. I am completely onboard with that, but you can't deny aspects of the work because you don't like it, then draw your own conclusions that don't come from the sourced text, and then get upset when your perspective isn't validated by the artists larger and more subsequent creations, just because they are not what you want it to be. That's not what death to the author is, that's you getting upset because your fan fiction didn't become on text television. The Destiel fandom has done this for years now. It's so tiring.

I basically think even if the CW and SPN writers wanted to throw the Destiel fans a bone, that fan base would take that inch and ask for a mile. The writers never should have engaged them in the first place because they never were going to be satisfied. Cas tells Dean I love you, and they still want more. The writers tell them Destiel is not going to happen and the fan base ignores them. If the writers don't have Dean say "I love you back to him", the immediate reaction from the fanbase is the network, actor and show writers are all homophobic and it's a conspiracy! They've even latched on to foreign translations from multiple countries to say that the CW is homophobic and is silencing Misha and Jensen. It's cringeworthy.

Regarding the show and it's content and the idea that supporting characters are important, this show has always been the Sam and Dean show, they are the only characters that have appeared in all 327 episodes. The first supporting character in the series Bobby, didn't come on the show until the back end of season 1. There was and should have been a focus on them in the series finale given that it's their show. It's right on the tin, and has been on the tin for years now. That fan base of a very specific ship just refused to see it.  

I watched the show briefly from seasons 4-7, and watched a few episodes from seasons 1-3, with sporadic viewing every now and then and it’s clear what the show was selling. It was never a show about Castiel and Dean’s romance. Castiel at best was in no more than 45% of the episodes, and the actor was fired once and demoted to recurring status numerous times. But still his online fan base would kick up a fuss, and we get things like what was posted above. 
 

The Destiel fans refused to take the show at face value, and created crazy conspiracy theories like if Dean wore green and blue he was secretly telling audiences that he loved Castiel, and if Dean would drink flavored water it meant he was bi. Just ludicrous stuff. I would never say this show queer baited, fans just believed what they wanted to and cried when they didn’t get that onscreen. 

Those Destiel fans are starting to look like QAnon at this point, and it's embarrassing. Throwing temper tantrums, hiring lawyers to sue the show, vote barraging with their bots and fake accounts, while throwing out thousands of hashtags because a ship that was never going to be canon in the first place didn't give them the ending they wanted is just ridiculous. SPN is not homophobic, because Dean and Castiel didn't get together and kiss during the show.  I really wonder, what show they even were watching sometimes, it's like they deny canon, insert their own interpretation of the show and then get upset when the show doesn't align with their vision and cry abuse. They really can't read a room, or understand what the writing on the wall is. Jensen has been telling them for years, that Destiel doesn't exist as a ship, Dean is canonically straight, and that Supernatural is not a show about romance. It's a show about brotherhood and family. If Destiel fans still don't get that Dean would drop kick everyone else in the world for Sam, they haven't been paying attention the last 15 years. 

I saw the series finale, I was not remotely prepared for it, they did a shockingly amazing great job, in a break your heart sort of way. Jensen and Jared’s futures are hell a bright. 

4 hours ago, marceline said:

That message from Joe and Jill really resonated with me today. I usually spend Thanksgiving with my mom at an open house hosted by family friends. I've often resisted going but I've done so because my mom loves it.

 

I'd give anything to be doing that today.

 

(Sorry. I'm feeling a bit maudlin and self-pitying.)

Don’t feel like you have to apologize, I definitely empathize and understand. This was the first time that I really felt the impact of the isolation since it started in March. Usually I am pretty strong, and I’ve been resilient, while my family has struggled but something about the holidays and now with Christmas right around the corner, it’s just different than it was in previous months.

I’m lucky that my mother lives so close to me (50 minutes away), and that I was able to spend the last 4 weeks with her while working remotely. But I have a large extended family (they live all across the eastern seaboard from Massachusetts to Georgia), and it’s upsetting to not have a gathering with them this holiday season. 

41 minutes ago, DRW50 said:

The main problems are downballot - they will be lucky they won't have Trump on the ballot again in 2022 (and possibly not 2024), as he clearly drives up GOP turnout, but they have huge messaging problems and that's only getting worse. 

This is why I am not overreacting too much with the 2020 election. Trump drives turnout but they won’t have him moving forward, if Democrats can keep the enthusiasm they had for the midterms like 2018 - 22 won’t be such a blood bath.

I’m only concerned if the resistance narrative ends up losing ground and Democrats go to sleep again the way they did when Obama was in office. Trump is a last gasp of a dying electorate, but only if the rest of the electorate wakes up and becomes a continued part of our electoral processes moving forward. 
 

The New Yorker, had an article run recently, that spoke to the fact that Trump winning the Latinos in Texas and Florida, wasn’t a big surprise she by you take into the “incumbent” effect of most candidates who occupy the Oval Office. Democrats should definitely have messaging in those places and also recognize the different pathways to immigration the Latino population has. 

They need to do that in Texas, North Carolina, and Florida going forward. I feel the “blue wall” in the mid-west is a mirage. Democrats might keep it for a few more election cycles max, but the writing is on the wall - look at Ohio. 
 

Democrats success is in the Sunbelt and the coasts moving forward. 

The House of Representative is something Democrats need to keep an eye on. Right now they need to prioritize the Georgia senate seats otherwise a lot of Joe’s executive agenda is dead on arrival. Especially with McConnel as the leader. But in the House, Republicans are projected to win 214 seats this Congress, while the Democrats are projected to win 221. That’s crazy close and Republicans just won the rights to gerrymander 40% of districts moving forward.
 

On average Democrats have to over win districts by 6-7 points in order to overcome Republican gerrymandered seats in the house. Expect them to make it even harder for Democrats to win seats moving forward. More over the “party in power” tends to lose a massive amount of seats in the midterm years, Obama lost a record 60 from 2008 to 2010.

It will be even worse with Trump screwing up the Census work as well, likely misallocating population totals from a lot of blue leaning cities. They will probably try to rewrite districts to make sure Democrats lose seats (i.e. drawing two Democrat districts into one so they lose seats in red states, and then redraw lines to make more Republican leaning districts), and the census has already started pulling down electoral college votes from some swing states (Pennsylvania is likely to lose electoral college votes in 2024).

So many uphill battles it seems. Democrats need really strong defense on all these fronts. Joe did his part in delivering the electoral college of 5 flipped states, now the Democrats need to deliver the Senate, and be on their best behavior for 2022, right around the corner. 

Agree with Beto, GOP didn't care about COVID-19 and they reaped the benefits from it. 

16 minutes ago, Khan said:

Here's what I don't understand (and if I have my facts wrong, please, by all means, correct me): even if Trump's legal team succeeds in getting votes tossed out, those wouldn't be enough to change the outcome of the election.  Ergo, what is the point in all this, except to burn everything down and keep Trump's name in the papers on his way out?

I wouldn't say he could even get votes tossed out, as he can't point to any single instance of voter fraud. He would have to supply that evidence first. I think someone earlier hit the nail on the head though in that they are trying to establish a foothold to weaken the states rights/laws concerning elections. That was straight out of the Kavanaugh playbook and that's what conservatives are trying to do moving forward. Make it so states themselves can't hold elections and rules are administered by the federal government, making it easier for them to disenfranchise certain voters who Republicans can't win with. This also establishes a precedent where incumbent Presidents can refuse to concede elections. Democrats won't use this, but Republican presidents very well may. 

Good for the Decision Desk to make a decision. PA's done. The networks are just scared because of Trump so they are being overly cautious. 

GA is still a toss up -- but Biden may have it if there are no big surprises: Provisionals (lean Democrat), Overseas Military (lean Republican), Oversees Expats (Lean Democrat) and fixed rejected ballots that people have until today to correct (lean Democrat). It's close but I think it tends to Biden. 

NV should have been called already. AZ is a mix but Biden may still make it happen there too. 

The New York Times is reporting that Trump filed another lawsuit to get Philadelphia to stop counting votes because his observers were denied access to watch them count. He has a hearing scheduled at 5:30, why is he getting these quick hearings? 

6 minutes ago, Khan said:

Sorry, but I don't trust Pete Buttigieg.  To me, he's a conservative in moderate's clothing.

I largely don't care for him either, but he has a talent for breaking through to them that other Dems could learn from. When he opens his mouth, conservatives don't hear sirens or a Charlie Brown sound, and it doesn't make them want to recoil and vote red. Democrats have a real voting problem if they can't turn out the Latinx vote going forward, those are keys to flipping Texas, Florida, Arizona and keeping Nevada and New Mexico. Democrats will eventually lose Minnesota, Michigan and Wisconsin due to socio-economic and cultural factors - the writing is on the wall. They need to prepare and invest in the future. 

I think Democrats need to invest in some media interviewing techniques like Pete, he is like the conservative whisperer, and they seem to "get it", when he speaks to them.  

Different times. McConnel can block pretty much anything if he has the Senate, even if Joe has Congress. 

6 minutes ago, Vee said:

But the only thing the GOP and their less committed swing voters respect is strength or the appearance thereof. When Trump and Bush won with numbers like what we're now facing, they called it a mandate and walked tall, and the media believed it. We have to do that. We have to be forceful and we have to take it to them.

I really think this is a problem due to the infrastructure of the US. It's hard to say that a President has a mandate, if they just squeaked by and won the election. I would feel more comfortable with a Biden mandate if we won the Senate, or received at least 300+ electoral collage votes. We need those in order to truly action a "mandate". That's easier for Republicans to do than Democrats. 

I wonder if we will see other retired Republicans like Paul Ryan returning to politics now that Trump looks to be losing the election and is out of office? 

2 minutes ago, Vee said:

No one could've won this election against Trump but Joe. No one. I suspected that a while back, but the nailbiters of this week - which, it seems, we will now win by a very healthy margin as opposed to the dark slim forecast once expected two nights ago - proved it. I was proud to vote for Elizabeth Warren but she would've been slaughtered. Bernie would've been a shitshow nightmare from summer to now. Trump worship is a cult that crosses social and in some cases ethnic lines, on misogyny, on masculinity, on racism. And as long as he was in play, we were going to need Joe Biden, an everyman, to counter him. And thank God for him.

Completely agree. Which honestly is why I am a bit scared for Kamala replacing him. America has shown it's true colors and a map for her in 2024 is scary to me. 

These voters lost their mind under Obama, and I still think they've been broken by the idea that a Black President was as good as he was. They never healed which is why they sent Trump in. 

1 hour ago, Vee said:

LOL, try it:

 

 

I wouldn't laugh, Trumpism is far from over in this country. The fact that this election is this close says volumes considering Trump basically killed 200,000 people, destroyed the economy, increased unemployment and wiped out gains for decades. People will vote for him, because he will cut taxes, fill courts with right-wing judges, and hurt Liberals. It's crazy to think that had he not mishandled COVID-19 he would have been re-elected. 

A lot of people are saying Nevada is "callable", and should be called now - the problem is the previous call with Arizona which still seems a bit close. With the AP and Fox already calling Arizona for Biden, it creates the narrative that Biden already won, when it looks like the vote for Arizona is still out. It's a bit of a mess. If they call Nevada for Biden, that most likely means he won Arizona as well. Wouldn't surprise me if most news outlets wait until Arizona is finished counting before releasing the wins of both states. 

2 hours ago, Fevuh said:

He'll get all of those.  We just need MN, MI, PA and WI and hang on to the states Hillary had.  I don't worry about the states we're going to lose - I want the ones we can win.  FL is a lost cause and we spend too much time there.  GA - never going to happen.  NC - better chance but probably not.  OH and TX can go.  Not worth the time.  

 

I'm Virginia, and I take every Political call for polls that I get.  And I lie.  I tell them I'm 100% Republican Trump all the way and I'm switching from Democrat to Republican and I'm not above lying at this point.  Let him and his cronies think they're doing better than they are.  

It sounds like you think this is going to be a really close race? 

FiveThirtyEight shared their interactive election forecast generator here. It's helpful to understand what that fault lines are for a Trump win: he needs Florida, Georgia, North Carolina, Ohio and Texas to win - if he loses any of those states he has a less than 1% chance of winning the election. 

4 hours ago, victoria foxton said:

 

 

Insane they got three Supreme Court seats with this President. 

On 5/17/2020 at 7:57 PM, AdelaideCate007 said:

I can't speak for GL but she absolutely deserves all the heat she gets for Alan and Georgie. I still don't know why either one of those happened. I didn't like it but I get why they killed Tony. I think killing Emily was shortsighted but whatever. There was zero reason for Alan and Georgie. I feel like they killed Georgie only so they could have Spinelli all for Maxie and so Maxie could humiliate Felicia. 

It always shocks me how mean and punishing the deaths of Georgie and Emily are, and it feels really symbolic because of what Georgie and Emily represented to the audience, these Fairytale Princesses who were more or less ingenues that defined their time periods of the show. It still hurts and you see the impact it has even to this day. They weren't huge characters but they represented something good. Her events were good in the beginning, but those events should have been accelerants to larger story elements, not the stories in and of themselves. The thing about JFP and GH is that she slowly destroyed everything to the point where there was pretty much no show at the end of Guza and Pratt's tenure. I know Carlivati gets a lot of flack, but I actually praise him for bring back GH to a more balanced soap that actually has multitudes and dimensions of story to tell. Yes - much of his stories are questionable, but at least the canvas has been regrown from the husk that Guza and Pratt ended up with. 

On 5/17/2020 at 11:31 PM, titan1978 said:

He had strip-mined all the charm out of the show.  It was a depressing, and at times boring mess.  He drove me away from the show several times- however I have never denied he is a good writer.  His show and scripts were light years ahead of what we have had since, in terms of depth and content.  It was just too dark and depressing and focused around the same sets of characters.  Carlivati brought many favorites back, but they were never what I would call well written.  But at least I wanted to see them.

I saw it as a needed sacrifice. Guza had salted and burned the entire playing field so that nothing could grow. Carlivati inherited a show that was so hollowed out that I don't think any writer could really get out of the chasm that was created by Guza. Carlivati's GH was not high art by any means, but it was a necessary evil in order to get GH to be something other than Mob Central 24/7.