The Republicans probably took MI because Detroit shrank.

ThAnks obama

Detroit is fun. They didn't like dealing with the laws they would toss on the rural parts of the state, so MI law has all sorts of exemptions for cities "over 1 million residents." Detroit is now about 750k.

And the rest of MI is very red.

Jesus Christ

that's nuts man

Yeah, NY does similar stuff.

Though they do tend to pass exemptions as a nod to help the rural parts

Like they delayed the minimum wage increase in upstate.

It seems like a lot of the country is red... and the major cities are blue

Still hurting them though.

That's pretty much how it works in the US.

it honestly seems, the more I look into it. That the country is not going back to democrats

The urban centers are deep red.

the suburbs are traditionally republican

And the rural areas are deep republican.

The polling suggests the suburbs are flipping, but they'll be the kingmakers for a bit.

It'll be very interesting over the next few years

Alot of the Republican advantage right now comes down to the fact that the American system has always favored rural areas politically because it's harder to reach and they tend to get less representation if everything were fair.

I'm hopefully coming to the US for uni exchange

Which Uni?

Kansas State I think

was originally going to Michigan State but feed K-state is better for me

Ah the heartlands.

K state is a good school. It's not famous, but it's good.

Great journalism school

Kansas biggest weakness is that there's not much there.

and that's what I wanted

Sounds like a good fit then.

I think so

KS is a big prarie.

Beautiful if you can take the wild weather swings and like endless flat plains.

But it's not a place people think to just visit.

I personally love KS. I'd live there if there was a job opportunity.

Very friendly place where you just make your own fun.

Wild weather swings? sounds like melbourne

I want to go down to Texas

maybe over to California and do some networking

I've heard a lot of work is moving to texas from california because of taxes

Yeah, there's no nearby bodies of water. You get cold winter snows and very hot summers.

Yeah, and the Californians are ruining Texas.

They bring their Californian nonsense with them and insist the locals do Californian things.

Texas is actually a very big and diverse state.

You should visit San Antonio, Austin and either Dallas or Houston.

I kinda wanna go pigging in texas tbh

I should warn, it's well into a full day driving to go from Kansas to Texas.

gotta meet some people hahahaa

Haha. Yep.

I live in Australia

it's a full day drive to get to the next major city

TBH, you can probably go pigging and stuff in KS.

good point 🤔

You'll fit right in in the Great Plains.

I think so

then the second six months I'll probably go to Robert Morris University in Pittsburgh

more for networking... connects me to NY, Boston, DC, Carolinas and all that stuff

Hm.

I should warn networking is probably better in Eastern Pennsylvania though.

Western Pennsylvania is rust belt and mountains.

The plan is to live for cheapish, travel to the bigger cities where journalism is strong

Originally I was gonna do MSU for a year and stay that side a lot... There's one upstate NY university, there's one in maine

Which Upstate U, may I ask?

Maine's too far away for any exciting networking, tbh.

I’ll check hold on

State University of New York - Stony Brook

It’s on Long Island

Hm. SUNY-SB. That's effectively NYC.

I don't know too much about it personally, but Long Island is considered suburban NYC at this point.

I do know the SUNY and CUNY systems are falling apart.

Anyways, if you get stuck or something, feel free to message me.

There are others

I’m just distracted haha

Yeah, I should get to productive stuff myself. If you need advice feel free to ask.

just PM

Too easy

I would want a guise around NY Hahahaha

Unfortunately, I'm a bit too far for that. Sorry.

There's also UMass Amherst

I don't know much about the UMass system.

If it was in Boston... I’d go there no issue but 🤷‍♂️

Amherst is so far outta the way

The idea for me is networking while over there

So I need somewheee that has easy access

That’s why I thought Pittsburgh would be ideal

My ultimate goal is to find work out of uni in the US so I don’t have to deal with the moronic Australian media

And there’s also nothing to do journalism wise in Australia unless you’re doing crime or politics

Hm. I should warn that the US seems to have a real glut of Journalists.

Pittsburg probably will work. But you'll want to look into Amtrak or something.

The big thing is to start writing. There are alternative papers in the Unis you can write for if you know where to look.

Out of the frying pan

Yeah I’m all over it tbh, and I know that haha but I’m confident that I will be able to stand out. The majority of “journalists” shouldn’t have their jobs

I’m gonna try look for start up companies... people with journalistic integrity. But it’s gonna be a trek

Let's kickstart a debate: Since *most* of this board tends to lean right (or atleast not progressive) there's a tactics debate right now on the right.

View 1: making fun of people is a bad idea and triggers a backlash.
https://www.nationalreview.com/2018/07/owning-liberals-feels-great-but-risks-backlash-at-polls/

View 2: Nah. No one is listening anyway. Need moar shitposts.
https://www.frontpagemag.com/fpm/270858/ridicule-not-reasoned-debate-best-medicine-bruce-thornton

Which argument do you find more convincing?

View 1, makes sense, that was what the libs did to trump supporters. Now I wouldnt say what rightwingers are doing to leftwingers are as bad but this only serves to widen the divide between the right and the left.

If the divide is going to happen anyways might as well have fun with it.

Which was my point. It sped up the inevitable

But it isnt helping either

Now we have the right stoking the fires and the left burning brighter.

Sooner or later that fires gonna burn bad

Or we can hope it runs out of steam