I saw Nish Kumar in Edinburgh on Saturday night (it wasn't random, he was doing a gig) and he had a nice line on the Trump shooting (obvs, this most recent one hadn't happened yet)...

Obviously, our first preference is that he wasn't shot, but our second preference is, having been shot, could he not have been shot to completion?

6 days later

the audience capture phenomenon I mentioned up thread, in action. gotta keep feeding the beast, lest it turn on you

9 days later

the republican plan to address the housing crisis in the US is ethnic cleansing. very normal stuff

    mdgoonah41 Well, according to Du Bois, at the time of abolition Lincoln carefully considered the transportation of all the freed slaves to Latin America, but abandoned the plan early when it became apparent it was a logistical fantasy ...

        Burnwinter in context, it’s better than owning slaves. Would like to dig deeper into it. If he was reviled by the idea of free black men or just found it politically untenable to have freed slaves in the union. 200 years later they’re eating the cats the after all

            Claudius Yeah it's not a pot shot at Lincoln, I don't think Abe was a bad guy, especially as far as parliamentarians go—quite the opposite really. The commentary in question is from Du Bois's BLACK RECONSTRUCTION which I read a few years back. It's an insanely dense book, but it's full of moments such as that.

            If anything it's more a comment on the failed history of grand plans to transport large numbers of people—you could compare Musk's Mars plans. Such projects often either can't be executed, or are economically stupid.

              flobaba I'd need to see detailed policy proposal ls from her. and more interviews. until such time, I'm undecided. signed, a Pennsylvania voter, probably

                  Gazza M lol. i listened to a really good podcast yesterday with a state legislator from PA and she basically admitted that only about 3% of people in PA are undecided, and for a lot of them, their indecision is whether they are going to actually vote, not who they'd vote for. i think for people on the hard left, its a question of whether you can hold your nose to vote against trump (which is what i'll do) instead of actually being excited to vote for harris.

                  from where we are right now, the most logical outcome of this race is that dems win back the house narrowly, win the white house, and lose the senate. if that happens, its going to be 4 years of absolutely nothing happening in this country. kind of hard to get pumped for that.

                    nothing happening isn't the worse thing in the world. i just wish it was the republicans keeping the house and the dems the senate and not the other way around though because she will need the senate for judicial appointments and that's where the most damage (depending on which side you're on) is done in this country: the courts. hopefully they get the senate in 2026.

                      Meatwad i agree but the senate map is dicey this cycle. if tester cant hold his seat in montana, thats pretty much the ball game, since manchin's seat is certainly going to flip.

                      2026 is better, since dems wont have to defend as many seats, but its still not great. osoff is up in GA and peters in michigan. in terms of pickup opportunities, collins in maine and tillis in NC are maybe the best bets, but they have strong incumbency on their side.

                      its really hard to see how dems are ever going to get 60 senate seats again. if they arent willing to nuke the filibuster, im not sure what the point of any of this is. terrible system. i hate it.

                        Claudius lol i think he was being sarcastic.

                        the big joke now is that the media elites keep pestering harris to explain in excruciating detail every single strand of her policy goals while allowing trump to say the most insane, unhinged nonsense every day with zero explanation or relationship to reality.

                            mdgoonah41 I see. Yeah. Anyone who says they want her policy isn’t interested in the policy. The other guy is talking about rapists and dog eaters.

                              mdgoonah41 not true. Trump gets challenged and fact checked every time as well.

                              It would not be prudent to allow Kamala get away with empty or unachievable promises just because “hey look at Trump”. Simple question. You’re going to give all first time homebuyers $25K. Where is it going to come from? Why is that an “excruciating detail” for which we can expect no answers?

                                  flobaba how does anything get paid for? she'll raise taxes on wealthy people and possibly raise the corporate tax rate. whatever her plan is and how she will pay for it is preferable to ethnic cleansing.

                                      this was cathartic to watch. this lady comes across as an unrepentant super karen. ofcourse trump is on record praising her 'work'