It’s just an homage to Trump, who is famous for not paying bills!

Because people are rarely single issue voters. There are a few here and there, but given the dominance of the US’s two-party system, you often have to make a choice. If I imagine 2 candidates: one who is strongly pro-choice but overtly anti-gay, and another who is strongly pro-life but also pro-LGBTQ issues, that would actually be a pretty tough decision for me.

As much as I want to hate Trump supporters, I can still sympathize with them. A lot are lifelong Republicans who are choosing between someone who will probably try to enact 90% of their personal beliefs but is an authoritarian crazy person, and someone who seems sane but disagrees with them on 90% of issues and will do everything to stymie the things they believe to be right. It’s not a simple choice.

I’m ignoring third-parties here as a caveat, so apologies if that’s the crux of your question. But my opinion is that you should push for and vote for a new system while accepting that the rules are what they are now, and you have to strategize with the current situation.

Oh wow, deep cut! I had that buried somewhere in the back of my brain.

Do not pay a lot of attention to single polls. Poll aggregators (even with flaws like RealClearPolitics) are so much better, and a predictive model (Nate Silver or the new 538) is even better. Great pollsters don’t herd and are not afraid of publishing outliers.

If we see the overall aggregate start to tend more toward Harris, that’s significant and this poll was an early sign. If it doesn’t, then this poll was just an outlier.

“Stop laughing,” the department chief said in an interview with WLMY. “This is a wheel problem for us.”

What a gorgeous kitty!

We could avoid this entirely, but the idiot Congress LIKES it. I don’t think any other country has a debt ceiling like the US. Why? Well, because when another country’s government (legislature, dictator, voodoo shaman) authorizes spending on something, they also authorize paying for it.

But in the US, Congress says (to the executive branch) you can only collect 50 bajillion in taxes, no more, no less. Also, you have to spend 55 bajillion on these programs, no more, no less. Then the president says, “uh, okay, but I’ll need to borrow 5 bajillion to do that because of math.” In reply, Congress stamps its collective foot like a toddler and says “NO NO NO YOU HAVE TO ASK US FIRST! Why are you drowning this poor country in debt you spendthrift!”