In 2000, the Democratic presidential campaign lost in a tight race. The margin of victory for the Republican was a tiny number of votes in Florida. People who didn't vote for the Democrat would witness the following in the next several years: Republicans having a majority in the House and Senate...

I don't like that Gavin Newsom is still the most visible presidential nominee for 2028, and is (so far) better at messaging than anyone else in the field. This doesn't bode well for a progressive victory. We're about a year out from people running for president. Someone needs to make their name.

I'm going to say something like this once or more a week to highlight how insane it is as we get into worse and worse political territory: Kamala would have been as bad as Trump. /s

Got annoyed about this again bc I remembered how the Gulf War happened because Americans got sad about photos of birds covered in oil. We are a mass of easily swayed people looking for an excuse to be righteously indignant!!

Observations from a liberal from 1995: youtu.be/pf7aoj_Xcs0?...

ADHD sucks for obvious reasons, but I think an overlooked facet of it is how pervasive undiagnosed ADHD is, and the statistically linked behaviors that go with it (likelihood of substance abuse, frequency of job losses, feelings of inadequacy because of a lack of supports, RSD, etc.), and fallout...

Thinking about writing a cringe, liberal analysis of The West Wing and Newsroom in the context of modern politics, specifically about how Sorkin, for some of his braindead takes ("Kamala should name a Republican as her VP" being a prime example), has a better handle on politics than the people...

No Kings was great. If they do another one, and I don't see why they wouldn't, I'll be going again. I will also go to other organized protests. I would be happy to go one with clear demands, and all the other things that people say No Kings should be doing.

From August, 2023: home.treasury.gov/news/feature...

Whether or not you like him, he's very visible in his resistance to this administration, and uncowed. Hard to say he doesn't walk the walk.

One Battle After Another wasn't my favorite PTA film, but it did a hell of a lot of things right. People need quality media to make important points, and OBAA made a lot of points about the left and right.

What you fail to accept is that millions of Americans were not willing to risk what Trump is now doing to this country. We were not willing to use the rights and lives of millions of vulnerable American residents as leverage, AS HOSTAGES, like they were mere bargaining chips.

I'm guessing most people haven't obsessively followed news of the ACA for almost 20 years--I wish I was as lucky as them, but I've had to care about healthcare for a long time--but it's a real case study in getting something big passed. It's also a case study in how it's sometimes necessary to...

Dreading the inevitable influx of "Trump is to the left of Biden" discourse after the potential peace deal. Trying to think of how to argue with people who say "ceasefire happened under Trump, therefore peace president" and ignore the outside public pressure and the sheer duration of it all.

I've never thought leaving Twitter was a good idea for the left. Ceding the most popular social media platform (the one most businesses, journalists and "regular people" use) to increasing amounts of white nationalist rhetoric without pushback seems like a way to keep losing. Kudos to Will...

Mutual aid is great, but voting for Democrats is better. Sending someone $35 is great. Making sure someone doesn't lose access to Medicaid is even greater. This is a post for anti-electoralists who think mutual aid > voting for the lesser of two evils.

This means when people say that Biden's economy was bad, you should ask them what was bad about it. Was it bad for low wage workers? Not relative to other administrations. So why was the anger so outsized for Biden's handling of the economy?

They invented the Mark Cuban Cost Plus Drug Company www.wsj.com/health/pharm...

Stephen Miller is labeling the left domestic terrorists. I don't think Trump and Kamala would have governed in the same way.

This.

Glad I can resume Disney+, Hulu and HBO Max.

After an economic downturn, an administration can either focus on reducing job losses or minimizing inflation. Biden's economy focused on reducing job losses. We had the lowest sustained unemployment rate in decades, and our economy performed better than the economies of the rest of the G7.

Project 2025 is like if OJ wrote “If I Did It” in 1993.

I saw someone post this on the hellsite, but I echo this opinion: The Pitt S1 was great, but Severance is a better show, even with an uneven S2. The Pitt is ER on HBO, and it's excellent. But it doesn't tickle my brain, because it's not new. Severance is an original idea, executed superbly...

I sometimes don't understand what people think moderators do. Bluesky adding "glorification of violence" to the list of prohibited actions in their ToS puts them in line with other social media sites.

Reading much tonight on Charlie Kirk, who he was, what he said and believed -- from both admirers and those deeply opposed. It does not matter. None of it. What matters is that political violence made routine against any voice, left or right, marks us as a failing, dying republic. This is horror.

The far right has been looking for a reason to commit mass political violence and it’s extremely important to unite around the principle that all political violence in America is unthinkable and unacceptable.

Just logged into Bluesky and read about Charlie Kirk. Jesus. The world is absolutely bonkers right now.

There is a real way to force the Dems to stop running centrists: Win partisan primaries! You can do more than withhold your vote from the Dems in a protest nobody cares about -- you can straight up replace the centrist Dem with a proud leftist! And we regularly do just that -- see DSA, for ex!

BENEATH the grass. Autocorrect is both an assassin and a moron.

Absolutely exhausted from probably 2-2.5 hours of volleyball at our family reunion yesterday. Hips, quads both gone. Back? Somehow also gone.

The ambiguity of poorly-phrased applications for state health benefits. *shudders* "Don't stress. If our questions confuse you, we'll just audit you later. Or you could call us after Labor Day to clarify. Just don't forget." 😅

Lol, wait. This is actually happening?! Yes!

Is Data Analyst a good job? It looks like a good job.

I think the situation we're in is basically that one side thinks caring about other people makes you stupid and weak, and the other side cares but can't stop stepping on rakes (very visible rakes) in the yard.

Hillary was right about the "deplorables" line. They've all been doing the Nazi shaving his own head meme and using that kind of shit as an excuse. Weak babymen.

My small in Wisconsin has cheap goods, but housing shortages are making renting or buying unaffordable. On a whim, I looked at housing in Minneapolis. It's not that much more expensive. That used to be unthinkable. In one case, there's a new construction passive house (1,324 sq ft) on the market...

We've reached a point in our politics when it's actually *not* clear to many people which party is worse than the other, and this is bad. We went from the mainstream view of "Obviously Democrats care more about people than Republicans. *Everyone* knows that. Some people just don't want to pay...

Couple of things: 1.) I need to cancel some streaming apps. I'll probably keep Apple and Disney+/Hulu and jettison a lot of the other ones. 2.) Kanopy is a cool app that lets you use your library card to rent hard-to-find/arthouse cinema. 3.) Portrait Artist of the Year might be fun for...

Nina Turner is often wrong. Bernie Sanders's biggest mistakes were selecting his staff and surrogates. Briahna Joy Gray is an accelerationist. Sirota was happy to be right about Kamala losing. Nina Turner doesn't win. Ro Khanna is a chameleon. And on the other end, Tulsi Gabbard is a fascist.

The third episode of Alien: Earth is much better than the first two episodes. Much scarier, and we see where the narrative is headed.

This is a reminder that Gavin Newsom will likely be the presidential nominee in 2028 because a.) his state is visibly under attack and he's visibly defending it and b.) his attacks against Trump are effective, and he keeps going after him. This isn't an endorsement of Newsom, but a look at...

I remember the waffles posts about how homelessness had increased under Biden, so actually the economy was *not* good. "Oh, wages are rising for the bottom quintile for the first time in decades? Tell that to the homeless."

What conditions would you argue merit being called a “good” economy?

I've been eating a lot lately. I don't know why I've been so hungry. I'm taking it as a good sign. Lots of summer foods like tomatoes on pumpernickel with cold cuts, and watermelon.

Guys, it's okay to say that Trump is a narcissistic fascist white nationalist sexual abuser, and that maybe equating him with Joe Biden or assuming he'd be better on any issue is cope. Being disgusted by Israel's actions and our complicity didn't mean we had to see Trump as some oasis and...

Lessons learned about poasting. 1.) Don't use God as a metaphor. "If God is real" freaks people out. 2.) Don't say "cultural ADHD" as a shorthand, even if you have ADHD. People will see it as a slur. Use a more precise descriptor, even if it's less pithy.

Electoralism is important. I've gotten a lot of replies since yesterday, some of them really thought provoking, but the ones that say elections don't matter are very easy to ignore.

Wrt Trump vs. Biden on Gaza, the efforts to deliver aid are different. Withdrawing from the WHO and cutting funding to USAID don't help, but funding levels for Gaza relief under Biden, as far as I can tell, were much higher than under Trump. Trump recently said he gave $60m in food relief to Gaza...