I say YES. YOU say NO....Numero Tre! Enjoy!

Quit making me defend Vance! Actually, I’m not defending him but I still think it’s important that the truth be spoken. Despite the rumor, there is not one place in Hillbilly Elegy, not even on the page referenced, that states he had intimate relations with a couch.

Yes, it kind of fun as well as funny to think about and creates great memes but it’s simply untrue. A loose relationship with the truth seems to be a Republican value that I won’t be adopting, even in my fervent desire to see trump and everything associated with him go down in flames.

There have been memes about couches too numerous to count and I've I don't use them because I didn't truly totally understand the point that was trying to be made. This one I did put in featuring the nightstand was quite lighthearted.

That said warning in advance — more could come. If you don't care for them, don't read them. I respect and like you Ex, but pardon me for saying we actually aren't in school here. I love the wisdom of great facts and points of interest and look forward to them, but a lot of our memes are not HIGHLY factual material but stress releases.

ETA: Glad you are not defending Vance - the indefensible.

One word - ouch.

https://www.vox.com/culture/360909/jd-vance-how-true-is-hillbilly-elegy-classism

Divine, I saw that Florida piece a little earlier but found more reading with the MSN link of yours, then what was in mine. I don't think Florida would really go blue, but I do think there are lots of Floridians who highly dislike Trump and we could garner a lot of the votes that might be skipped or given to a 3rd. party. It all counts.

There are so many volunteers and money coming in that I think there will be huge opportunities to reach people who may not have voted and now will if they have Harris as a choice.

I also read the Elegy link. I don't know if I've mentioned here —(the town actually about three miles from here is where I grew up, but I was born in the hospital here in Centralia. There were about 200 people then. We lived by the coal mine whistle. You knew when it was 8 O'clock because the whistle blew for the miners to start to work. Then at noon so they could eat, and then at 4 which was quitting time. All the kids knew to start home when the whistle blew in the afternoon. No rich people in my town although some did okay. The tavern owners especially — there were four of those, and one general store. The mine workers made more than most of the jobs (mainly farming) and the farms that did well had several things going. Milk cows, crops etc. We had very close to a one room school. There was one building for first three grades, and then the big building for the rest. The big building had 4-5-6 and a big heavy swinging door led into the last room with 7 and 8th. We lived on 70.00 a month in our family of four.

This is just to say I really couldn't identify much with the Elegy book. We were probably hillbillies too, but I didn't know that and no one else from there much did either. Some of my family (cousins) did well for themselves. One, an older male cousin, graduated from St. Louis University at 16. His whole life as been wonderful and I'm so happy that it has been, but he did not have a Peter Thiel to give him a shove. He truly did it all on his own. He is quite wealthy. His brother too (whom everyone said would be in the penitentiary before he was 20 is as well. He has been retired for some years now too. Both of these men got where they got in live without major pushes from anyone and they are just as humble today as they were in the beginning. So, I just felt with the mannerisms and things that I saw with Vance that he had some major flaws/lacks or something in his character that turned me off. I wonder how he might have turned out if he'd really LIVED the "hillbilly " life 24 /7 and 365 like a lot of people did.

A classmate of mine was bemoaning how little media coverage Trump’s remarks got about his “vote this time and you’ll never have to vote again” speech. I came across this explanation about the media from a liberal guy named James Fell, a Canadian author with a history background who has a social media page. He can be a bit much to take, so I took out the cuss words, but his words ring so true:

“When did CNN go so far off the rails? I’ll tell you when. They lost all credibility (as did many other major media) when they started losing money because President Biden has been BORING. Trump sold papers and drove clicks and got views because he is made of pure chaos. Biden quietly and competently got shit done (and he’s not finished). The latter saw the media suffer financially, and they have not even tried to hide their bias in the hopes of another Trump presidency because even though Trump is an enemy of free speech, it would give a boost to their ratings.”

Living our life means that we take our life day to day and moment to moment, always trying to deepen our understanding of what it means to be human.  Life will never be perfect, and we will always be in a state of moving towards completeness.  Don, 84, put it this way:  "You have lived the life you have lived.  When we accept the life we have lived, then we can begin to be whole."  He echoed an often-heard theme:  When we judge our life we diminish ourselves.  The more we can eliminate all need to compare, compete, grade, and judge our lives, the closer we get to wisdom.

John Izzo

Oh how much I'm hoping that we do this. Of course, the other side is opining that if we win that we will have cheated. Well, that is a subject they know a lot about, but we have proven over and over (how many lawsuits defeated in 2020 — 60 or so) that we fight fair.

Well did they get their miniscule feelings hurt or what.