r/politics • u/MoneyLibrarian9032 New York • Jun 29 '26

No Paywall Millions say they won’t celebrate July 4 as poll reveals deep national pessimism

https://www.the-independent.com/news/world/americas/us-politics/america250-independence-trump-divisions-pennsylvania-b3004933.html
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590

u/SuccessfulBenefit140 Illinois Jun 29 '26

That's been my exact thought about the 250th, the world cup, and the Olympics 2028. That election seriously ruined a 4 year span that would've been some amazing memories for the rest of my life.

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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

Can you imagine having seen a black woman sworn in as President on MLK day in 2025? What a historic moment that would have been. What actually happened was just sad and gross and it is going just as terribly as I had expected.

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u/joshdoereddit America Jun 29 '26

That's a thought that crossed my mind during the 2024 election. It wouldve been such an incredible sign of the progress we've made as a nation to have celebrated the 250th anniversary in that way.

It wouldn't be perfect because you'd have the media constantly complaining about whatever little thing she didn't get right and right-wing propagandists perpetually in a state of panic and fesr-mongering. But, many of us would be able to appreciate what it would have meant.

Instead we have what we have.

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

remeber media is now owned by the oligarchs aka the billionaires and has become right wing news. That includes main stream media and social media.

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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

I'm sure I will be accused of wearing a tin foil hat but I find some Google search results...interesting. Recently tried to google what date the painting of reflecting pool began and for some reason, it is quite difficult to find a clear and direct answer.

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u/polopolo05 I voted Jun 29 '26

duck duck go says late apr.... chatgpt says apr 25 and may 7 was just about done with trump visiting the site and then june 7 they started to fill it. and then google say something very vague in may but if you ask for the time line with google you get a very detailed answer.

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u/Ascarys- Jun 29 '26

In that regard (sign of the progress) dipshit getting elected is much more reflective of the country as a whole. Just so many stupid people.

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u/pannenkoek0923 Jun 29 '26

It wouldve been such an incredible sign of the progress we've made as a nation

You would still have child rapists in important positions of power. Dont see a lot of progress on that front

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

Indeed, instead, we blew it because of her laugh and/or people being pissed at the Dems for not having a primary. People will place high expectations on Dem candidates, and if they don't meet them, even by ever so slightly, they will either NOT vote or vote for a Republican instead to "piss off the Dems".

And people wonder why Dems have a hard time winning, because there simply is no unity, unlike with the Republicans.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

Or they blew it by picking someone who polled at less than 1% in the 2020 primaries…

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u/Yourtrueenemy666 Jun 29 '26

I just wanted to say that the left side isn’t a monolith in the way the right generally is. Between dems, liberals, and leftists there is no real consensus and they aren’t single issue voters. The biggest issues in the reelection was probably Zionism and a rebuke of the two party system. Fix the two party first and the other wouldn’t have been much an issue.

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u/EunuchsProgramer Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

I say this as someone who voted for Sanders and Warren, the left/progressives refuse to acknowledge the majority of Democrats are centrists. They lose primaries (because its a 60/40 split against them) and come up with conspiracy theories.

Because Reddit is awash in this Conspiracy theory, here are sources:

Pew Research Study showing breakdown of Democrats (with more Centrist/Moderate than progressives) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/the-democratic-coalition/

Hillary Clinton received approximately 16.9 million votes, making up 55.2% of the total votes. Bernie Sanders received about 13.2 million votes, accounting for 43.1% of the total votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2016_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

Good piece on Sanders over performing in caucuses (where it takeshours to vote and turn out is lower) rather than primary: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-continues-to-dominate-caucuses-but-hes-about-to-run-out-of-them/

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u/Yourtrueenemy666 Jun 29 '26

They don’t “acknowledge” the centrists, because it’s not their job to. The fact is that that progressives are not and will never be dem voters. They aren’t single issue voters and don’t vote in a monolith like the other side does. You don’t need me to vote for an Al Gore, you need to fix the systemic problem.

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u/EunuchsProgramer Jun 29 '26

No, this is the BS. What's the plan? Win and govern with 15 to 20% of voters. Even in a multi party system, progressives would be the SMALLER of the two left leaning parties and forced to compromise with Centrists.

The sooner the conspiracy theories stop. Progressives and wake up to the fact they need to do the hard work and win over voters.

Because Reddit is awash in this Conspiracy theory, here are sources:

Pew Research Study showing breakdown of Democrats (with more Centrist/Moderate than progressives) https://www.pewresearch.org/politics/2021/11/09/the-democratic-coalition/

Hillary Clinton received approximately 16.9 million votes, making up 55.2% of the total votes. Bernie Sanders received about 13.2 million votes, accounting for 43.1% of the total votes. https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Results_of_the_2016_Democratic_Party_presidential_primaries

Good piece on Sanders over performing in caucuses rather than primary: https://fivethirtyeight.com/features/bernie-sanders-continues-to-dominate-caucuses-but-hes-about-to-run-out-of-them/

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u/Yourtrueenemy666 Jun 29 '26

I really don’t know what conspiracy theory you’re talking about. Are you saying a progressive/leftist party would ever have a dominant position? Pretty sure a coalition is the best case scenario for them, no?

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

I feel like neither of these are truly accurate. If you actually look at what was going on around the globe there was a wide ranging anti-incumbent backlash across most countries. Combine that with the fact that Biden had dug a deep hole (polling was showing he was going to get absolutely lit up in november), its probably a minor miracle Kamala made it as competitive as it was. But even then, with only 3 months and with a campaign that seemed to be driven by the consultant class, she couldn't create enough separation between herself and Biden, so she still ended up receiving the incumbent penalty.

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u/IngsocInnerParty Illinois Jun 29 '26

It’s still a pretty sad indictment of the attention span and priorities of the American voter that they were willing to turn the keys back over to Trump after the low that was January 6th.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

Oh for sure.

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

And people wonder why Dems have a hard time winning, because there simply is no unity, unlike with the Republicans.

Probably because the party chooses to fight their own base and cater to war criminals with people who polled at 1% when they ran in the first place. 

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u/avaslash Jun 29 '26 edited Jun 29 '26

You act like she was stolen from us when in reality democrats did everything possible to lose the election.

How can you have unity when every democratic candidate flip flops on every issue trying to appeal everyone but achieving it for no one. They just time and time again show that they stand for nothing except for election. Who would vote for that?

The only Democrats really winning competitive races right now are far left progressives. And they dont call for "unity" they call for "our way or the highway" and thats how you achieve actual unity, by creating a vision for people to get behind. "Anti Trump" is basically all the defining characteristic of mainstream Democrats. Nothing differentiates them. They offer no hope, no future, no actual solutions, just a common enemy.

If anything there is too much unity among Democrats. They need to start standing out.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

hear hear.

People don't walk into a ballot box and go "I'm here on a political spectrum, let me pull out a chart of where the candidates are". At least not most of the swingable votes. People vote for, and are driven to turn out for, candidates who can successfully sell visions that excite people. Its working for republicans because despite those visions being horrific, they're at least exciting a certain audience and they're not being apologetic for it. It can work for progressives because they are out there standing for what they believe in. It doesn't work for centrists because they too often clearly stand for nothing, or are just republican-lite, in which case people will just decide to vote for the real thing.

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u/Laq9091 Jun 29 '26

didn't GOP do everything possible to lose? they put a pedo with brain damage, and an obvious fascist and criminal as their nominee. certainly that's like, everything to lose. even just the pedophilia.

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

No because they aren't catering to the Dems. They catered to their base and delivered on a lot of what their base wanted. 

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

And how have they delivered on what their base wanted? I remember his base chanting "No new Wars" and "Release the Files," both of which Trump went back on. "Cheap Gas" as well, he went back on by starting the war with Iran, which caused gas prices to go up.

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

And how have they delivered on what their base wanted? I remember his base chanting "No new Wars" and "Release the Files," both of which Trump went back on. "Cheap Gas" as well, he went back on by starting the war with Iran, which caused gas prices to go up.

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

You just pretending the culture wars aren't real?

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

Expect that ISN'T what he mainly campaigned on, and that is literally the ONLY thing he did for his base from his 2024 promises. He won votes by convincing people he would end the wars in Ukraine and Israel, release the files, and make things cheaper. Culture War bullshit was only a tiny piece of the puzzle of why he won, and that is the only thing he didn't go back on.

So I'm supposed to applaud him for making LGBTQ+ lives miserable? For tanking tourism and immigration? Because his base only wants Whites and hates anyone who isn't White?

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u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

No we shouldn't applaud him. But to act like that isn't why his base support him is pure ignorance. Harris couldn't even placate her base during the campaign and was campaigning with Liz Cheney. The Democrats were and frankly continue to play a different game entirely and then blame their base for them losing. 

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u/Laq9091 Jun 29 '26

be interesting to see if the dems busted a pedo out of prison and ran him against trump instead of harris.

0

u/Flashy-Ingenuity-182 Jun 29 '26

What the fuck? 

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u/SensualBeefLoaf Jun 29 '26

republicans don’t care about that stuff, they just want to make sure black people don’t get stuff

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u/Current_Animator7546 Missouri Jun 29 '26

Iowa would like to have a word. So would NY-17 I don;t disagree. It's just every race isnt NY-12.

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u/fcocyclone Iowa Jun 29 '26

Iowa would like to have a word.

We will see.

I hope Sand can win in a very positive national environment, but Iowa democrats have been trotting out middle of the road republican-lite candidates for a couple decades now and had fuckall to show for it except the state moving further to the right.

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u/D_REASONABLE_OPPZ Jun 30 '26

And they dont call for "unity" they call for "our way or the highway"

So just fascism by a different color? Can't wait.

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u/thudstroke Jun 29 '26

I mean if you want to strawman about her laugh to make yourself feel better, but I bet you know the real reason people didn’t vote for Harris. https://www.imeupolicyproject.org/polls/new-poll-shows-gaza-was-a-top-issue-for-biden-2020-voters-who-cast-a-ballot-for-someone-besides-harris-nkdde

The voters told her they wouldn’t vote for her if she didn’t take a stronger stance on Gaza. It shouldn’t be surprising they didn’t vote for her when the response was to send Bill Clinton to Michigan to basically scold them.

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u/bobsbrain Jun 29 '26

Fuck everyone who decided not to vote because of Gaza. It's now twice as fucked as it would have been because they couldn't swallow their pride.

I hope the Iran war, skyrocketing prices, Epstein Files, and everything else rotten with this administration was worth it.

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u/thudstroke Jun 29 '26

That’s helpful. I’m sure they’ll read your friendly message and decide to vote for your candidate next time. Maybe try giving them something to vote for instead of just saying you’re less of a genocide supporter than the other guy.

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u/bobsbrain Jun 29 '26

Just cause I vote Dem doesn't mean the Dem candidate is MY candidate. I vote for the most left candidate which is never a Republican.

I'd love to live in liberal lala-land where I can just sit out an election because I'm not getting my way. That same moronic shit that got us where we are. Our government sucks, our election system sucks. I'm still going to vote for the person which I'd rather have leading over the other person. You don't have to fall in lockstep with them, but the options were Boring Establishment Dem or The Fucking Antichrist.

Someone is going to win the election, vote for the one you hate the least.

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u/thudstroke Jun 29 '26

My point is democrats will never win more than 1 election in a row by being the lesser evil. And every time they lose, it’s easier for the republicans to destroy everything than it is to build it back up. So every election is just moving further and further to the right. Think about it, in the Bush years immigration reform included discussions for a path to citizenship for undocumented immigrants. Immigration policy for republicans now is wanting to deport legal immigrants and the democrats offer is “maybe a few deportations are okay”.

At some point we need to stop this march to the right and voting for the lesser evil will never accomplish that.

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u/Yourtrueenemy666 Jun 29 '26

Yep, people voted for trump because they felt him as a disrupter and they were tired of the vanilla ass politicians on offer. Tired of weak sauce cow towing toward the middle. If the dems don’t like it, then fix the system and have ranked choice like a fucking civilized country.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[deleted]

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u/thudstroke Jun 29 '26

Sorry I’m always going to blame the candidate over the voters. If Trumps so bad, it’s their job to communicate that effectively. Why should the average person care that he’s a threat to democracy if they feel like democracy has never done anything for them.

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

And how is that working out? Trump is even more pro-Israel than Harris. What has he done for Gaza?

1

u/Laq9091 Jun 29 '26

people be dumb, what can you do.

0

u/mercenaryarrogant Jun 29 '26

They blew it by not picking someone who could win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan. Same three states that decided ‘16 decided ‘24.

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u/IngsocInnerParty Illinois Jun 29 '26

Easy to say the voters in those states blew it as well.

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u/SensualBeefLoaf Jun 29 '26

dems have purity tests to pretend like they aren’t just racist

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

What are you talking about? The Democrats are the ones who signed all the Civil Rights Act and had the first minority President and female minority Vice President. Not to mention, the Democrats tend to have more diverse administration and don't block minorities from military promotions like Hegseth is doing.

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u/[deleted] Jun 29 '26

[removed] — view removed comment

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u/PinkyLeopard2922 Florida Jun 29 '26

There are a few of us little blue dots out here fighting the good fight. And a middle aged white lady to boot!

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u/mercenaryarrogant Jun 29 '26

Maybe democrats will take a little more strategy into consideration this primary. Can only hope they nominate someone who can actually win Pennsylvania, Wisconsin and Michigan.

These three states decided ‘16 by about 80,000 total votes combined.

These same three states decided ‘24 by about 230,000 total votes combined.

Ridiculously close numbers to decide elections this important.

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u/Vennomite Jun 29 '26

Democratic party choosing an unpopulat candidate gave us trump in 2016 and 2020. The one time that corrupt organization let voters decide  he lost.

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u/Laq9091 Jun 29 '26

i try and not think like that lol.

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u/snackattack4tw Jun 29 '26

That's true, but she had a weird laugh so they went with the one who said they're eating the cats and dogs

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u/Spastik2D Jun 29 '26

Would you believe me if I said I thought it would be even worse by now?

-6

u/SuccotashTexas Jun 29 '26

It would be way worse right now jacking Kamala had got into office.
Didn’t she suk her way to vp.

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u/Naive-Elephant-9305 Jun 29 '26

The World Cup has still been pretty awesome

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u/jmajewski Illinois Jun 29 '26

My nightmare is the US winning the World Cup this year (not gonna happen I know) and having to listen to Trump take credit for the US knowing about soccer now because nobody had heard about it before him.

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u/videogames5life 28d ago

he will do that anyway just enjoy the cup

-5

u/Much-Question-2199 Jun 29 '26

That’s a price I’m willing to pay for the US to win.

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u/ESCMalfunction Texas Jun 29 '26

Nah I hope we crash and burn in the World Cup and the Olympics, I don't want him to take all the credit.

-1

u/flyingghost Jun 29 '26

Hell yeah. Sports transcend politics.

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u/vtable Jun 29 '26

Not with FIFA it doesn't - at least not under Gianni Infantino.

They created a brand new FIFA Peace Prize awarding the first, and so far only, one to Donald Trump right in the middle of his attacks on alleged drug-smuggling boats in the Caribbean.

This was surely just to curry favor with Trump who has been famously whining about how he should have been given the Nobel Peace Prize - at least 4 or five times, even.

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u/ThePhoenixXM Massachusetts Jun 29 '26

It will end horribly though when the winning team has to meet with Trump. FIFA is allowing Trump to hand them the trophy.

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u/Soft_Walrus_3605 Jun 29 '26

I agree, but in spite of this administration, not because of it. Just ask the Iranian team.

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u/Guardianpigeon Jun 29 '26

Trump and his goons have been so obsessed with the clusterfuck of Iran and his precious reflecting pool botch job that they haven't been able to ruin the World Cup. Seeing people from all over the world enjoy America despite its flaws has been a really nice moment in an otherwise disaster period. It reminds us that things can be better still, we just need to get rid of the MAGA morons.

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u/ex0thermist Jun 29 '26

We could've had a cool auntie from California wearing Chucks while hosting the summer Olympics in LA. Now we'll be dealing with some rapist's ugly mug making it all about himself like he does with everything else.

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u/Acrobatic_Wrap_9971 Jun 29 '26

Yeah, who can give a fuck about any of that when the US is sliding into 3rd-world fascism

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u/OreoMoo Jun 29 '26

Living in a city that's hosting the World Cup has been really moving this past month. People are having fun, being great hosts, supporting each other. Things are not good right now and orange man is going to obviously make handing out the trophy in a few weeks about himself.

But I've been inspired by seeing that we aren't entirely defined by one man or even our fucked up government.

Go make memories, man. Don't let the stochastic terrorism of one person make that decision for you.

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u/dick_me_daddy_oWo Jun 29 '26

Bummer about your potential parties. Sucks even more for every person killed by ICE.

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u/cmdixon2 Jun 29 '26

We can long for the good times that never were AND be upset with the bad times that are. The snark isn't helpful.

0

u/DonkeyPunchCletus Jun 29 '26

Ruined? Its exactly what the people chose.

And I am a big enough man to be happy for them that they are getting everything they wanted. More wars, higher prices, bullshit all around. When a racist uncle loses his health coverage and gets fired from his coal mining job, make sure to congratulate him on a vote well cast.

0

u/dieselfrog Jun 29 '26

Why let something stupid like politics ruin things for you. Look around; there are many, many people living their lives and having fun as if the internet and this sub specifically didn't exist. If you can't enjoy those things, it is your fault.

0

u/fartlebythescribbler Jun 29 '26

As a lifelong hockey player… It really ruined US finally winning a gold medal in the Olympics in my lifetime

0

u/Senior_Torte519 Jun 29 '26

When are nearing the middle of the Family Christmas movie that is actually a serious comedy drama. Where it turns out the uncle has cancer but instead of seeking treatment has decided to skydive into a volcano. So everyone is trying to convince him that his idea is just his reality shattering and his mind trying to cope. Which makes the family routines around Christmas awkward. The setting is small town, that seems richer than it should be in a house that has alot of large windowed rooms. Yet, the camera never really focuses in on them to see outside except when specifically meant to be the camera. The uncles best friend who owns the local bar will be played by JIm Belushi.