patrick.net

Patrick says

I've read that Republicans now have a two seat majority in the Senate

With or without VP?

Eric Holder says

Patrick says

I've read that Republicans now have a two seat majority in the Senate

With or without VP?

Without. Montana was a biggie, hence why Trump campaigned there earlier on to get rid of Tester. Getting that seat back was kind of a big deal. It's a red state, but Missoula and Bozeman have massive (to Montana) liberal people. Most from CA and kids that stay after college in those cities.

Senate races are a different animal. If you just pester/campaign the major cities in your state you can win. The fact Tester lost is amazing.

Eric Holder says

With or without VP?

Isn't the VP only for ties?

HeadSet says

Eric Holder says

With or without VP?

Isn't the VP only for ties?

Good point.

WookieMan says

Eric Holder says

Patrick says

I've read that Republicans now have a two seat majority in the Senate

With or without VP?

Without. Montana was a biggie, hence why Trump campaigned there earlier on to get rid of Tester. Getting that seat back was kind of a big deal. It's a red state, but Missoula and Bozeman have massive (to Montana) liberal people. Most from CA and kids that stay after college in those cities.

Senate races are a different animal. If you just pester/campaign the major cities in your state you can win. The fact Tester lost is amazing.

Stayed in Bozeman for a few days this past summer and then in Kalispell for a week. The tEster ads were non stop. Wouldn’t be surprised if it backfired and people got tired of it.

Btw the Flathead Valley(where Kalispell is) and surrounding mountains is truly God’s country. Welcoming people, more churches than you can shake a stick at, no graffiti, minimal crime, and perhaps the most beautiful scenery in the lower 48. If I was starting a family, there’s few places I can think of that are better.

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

The tEster ads were non stop. Wouldn’t be surprised if it backfired and people got tired of it.

While I agree, people I know that are a decade or more anchored there are annoyed with the Californians moving in. My IL buddies that moved there are hard core conservative and couldn't stand IL anymore, but didn't bring Chicago politics. A lot of CA migrants to MT are not conservative at all. New businesses are yuppieville type.

Ennis and Virginia City are cool small towns with a few restaurants Southwest of Bozeman 45min. Hebgen lake is a good place to rent a pontoon. Floating the Madison is fun and stress free. Class 1 at worst. Or just drive around wherever with a road soda. West side of the Bridgers is quiet and cool. There are a few paths. Lava Lake is another good hike just north of Big Sky.

My buddies have to work when I visit so I just rent a car and literally drive without GPS or anything and find stuff. They've been living there 10+ years and I'll usually find a cool new spot they didn't know about. I tend to go north of Bozeman when out there. There's nothing. My cup of tea. Do a mile or two hike, have some beers and take some photos.

Glacier area is on the bucket list. This will sound ridiculous, but there's a part of me that want to get killed by a bear. That would be the ultimate obituary. Or if I survive to talk about it. I figure it's a win win. I don't bring guns or spray when I'm solo out there. Risky, but whatever. I like to be alone in nature.

FuckTheMainstreamMedia says

The tEster ads were non stop.

What is tEster?

Patrick says

What is tEster?

Typo, apparently. Jon Tester was the incumbent Dem that was defeated.

Patrick says

Our voting system is so bad. These districts are not large. It should be counted IMMEDIATELY after the polls close. I have no clue how you can call the POTUS state wide, but not a small district by now. It averages 761k or so in population by district. Not even votes.

You could easily hand count in 24 hours after polls close with 10 people. That 761k number is total residents, that includes minors. Then factor in people that don't vote or register to vote. It's maybe 350k ballots at tops. There's no reason any House seat shouldn't have been decided by yesterday (I'm central time zone so it's Thursday now). One person should have no problem handling 1-2k per hour.

Just look, Candidate D in one pile and Candidate R in another by pile. Write ins in a 3rd pile. You toss them in a money counter type machine and it's done.

Also Trump seems fine for his age. Shit happens though. The speaker of the house is 3rd in line. It's extremely important to get the House for all 4 years. Hopefully Republicans can get a good speaker is all.

As I said earlier, California allows late voting. For president where there’s hundreds of thousands of votes difference, it’s of no consequence. But for congressional districts we’re voting can be decided by votes in the hundred, they have to wait to call elections.

The problem of course is the voting should be in person or by requested ballot only. None of this mailing out ballots to everyone bs.

HeadSet says

Patrick says

What is tEster?

Typo, apparently. Jon Tester was the incumbent Dem that was defeated.

This. Sorry I only post from my phone and apparently have massive fat fingers.

Let me know if I can make the site easier to use on a phone somehow.

Patrick says

Let me know if I can make the site easier to use on a phone somehow.

Nothing you can do. I have a phone but don't text on it. If you're a man that is larger in stature, you cannot type on phones. #big hands. At least I don't.

The wife gets pissed at me but I need a real keyboard. I need a real screen. My computer is in the basement (finished) but she gets annoyed when I don't text her and voice to text is pure trash. I just need to be at a computer.

In hindsight I didn't realize it, but there was an Indian/Asian chick in my computer class when we were in 3rd grade. We were competitive with WPM. She won but I was too young and stupid. The teacher would just have us compete and have to go teach the other idiots. We were knocking out 80-90 WPM in 3rd grade in roughly 1991. She was cute. I wasn't at that stage yet. It was fun.

Patrick says

Let me know if I can make the site easier to use on a phone somehow.

It would be nice if you could add a reply button. Right now you have to press quote when replying to a post and that copies the whole thing, which makes the reply too long. Worse, there’s a character limit and so if I’m on a phone and I want to reply to a long post it won’t even let me.

A reply button could just past something like “Replying to User, Post #, link” Then you could add your reply.

Patrick,

Fox News election maps work well. You have to scroll down and select the state.

https://www.foxnews.com/elections/2024/general-results/house

They have it at 209 for republicans with 6 flipped seats.

The races I’m most familiar with are 47, 45,, 41, 27, and 40. They are all close though it appears Young Kim in 40 is starting to pull away. I really hope she wins and Garcia in 27 who always has a tough race. Neither have perfect voting records and some might call them RINO’s. But they have voted right on everything important and both represent purple districts where the Dems spend absurd amounts of money.

Also want to see Michelle Steel win in 45. They keep redrawing her districts boundaries making tougher and tougher re elections. She’s very conservative and a super reliable Republican vote.

All three I’ve listed have great back stories…Garcia as a military vet and Steel and Kim as immigrants from Korea.

If republicans win all five of these seats, it only leaves four others needed for a house majority.

Plus both ladies absolutely blow the Dems caricature of the Republicans out of the water

NewGuy says

It would be nice if you could add a reply button. Right now you have to press quote when replying to a post

@NewGuy

Thanks, but I don't know what you mean. Each email has a "Reply" link at the bottom. Does it not show up for you?

I could automatically quote part of the comment or thread when you click Reply, with a link back to it. Is that what you meant?

Real clear politics now called the Pennsylvania senate race for McCormick and so did fox. So republicans at 53 Senators giving them an effective deterrence to murkowski, Collins, and whomever else.

RCP also has repubs at 212 house seats(fox is at 209). One of those is young Kim whom I referred to earlier in this thread.

Things keep looking more and more positive.

Also, those she’s an annoying troll, Lauren Boebert trounced her opponent and the district switch worked well as her replacement in west colorado won also.

NewGuy says

Worse, there’s a character limit and so if I’m on a phone and I want to reply to a long post it won’t even let me.

Don't use it on the phone. Phones suck. Patrick would have to create a dedicated app for that. Not worth it. I'm on the phone on the shitter in the morning and I won't visit the site. Just put a video on while taking care of the morning duty. Don't bring laptops on vacation so I go silent generally on the site. Everyone will know I'm dead if I go 30 days without a comment.

If anything the memes bother me more. I like reading and original opinions and not quotes of news article. I like to know the way people are actively thinking about things. Writing/typing on a phone is a bitch.

@NewGuy

I tried to make it work well on phones. I really don't like apps because they are pretty much all just spyware, and an unnecessary complication.

There has to be a character limit, but maybe I should make it alert you when you've typed that much?

Patrick says

There has to be a character limit, but maybe I should make it alert you when you've typed that much?

I do agree with NewGuy on the character limit. If using an article copy and paste the important part and drop a link if we want to read the full thing.

I have no clue how to do it, but maybe a "read more" link cutting off a rant or long quote if it gets too long after so much text and it opens in a new window/tab the OP or comment there expanded so you can read everything and still be able to quote and comment.

I've drafted probably hundreds of comments and just said fuck it, this is probably too long or didn't want to bore other users. Makes scrolling past the long stuff easier as I also skip comments if it's a new read for me (no notification thingy) and has 30 comments already with 20 copy and paste articles quoted. I can search for content I want to read. There are also news aggregators out there already. I just scroll past memes and long form quotes that weren't written by the user.

I'm aware I write novels, but for whatever reason I'm not a fan of back to back comments. Spectrum/ADD issues that are undiagnosed I suppose.

Real clear politics has now called 217 seats for the republicans. And republicans lead at least two of the California seats late in the game. Actually looks like the Republicans will get 223-224 seats.

I sure hope so.

Even if Democrats obviously cheat again, maybe there is hope that some of them will turn DINOs and side with Republicans because they can feel which way the wind is blowing.