Schneider has a point . . . If you overlook the fact that he has none of the things Hollywood values: looks, talent & charisma.

The greatest detriment to social cohesion in the U.S. is an abiding belief in our national myths: exceptionalism, rugged individualism & the American dream, wch is ever receding for more ppl due to the specious premises & strictures of capitalism.

Some constituents learn more from experience than from speeches, teaching & preaching combined. Using all methods seems like a common sense strategy. I only hope Kat wins to prove the worth of her outreach based experiential strategy.

I wish more Congress people wld make specific, public demands like this, rathert than just lamenting generic inadequacies & transgressions by the Trump/MAGA-fied GOP proto-fascist regime.

The U.S. is individualistic & diverse, yet passive, but protest is active, social & requires consensus. Shutdowns won't happen until our culture is no longer dominated by American & capitalist myths--rugged individualism, exceptionalism, free markets & the Am. Dream--or the next GOP econ disaster.

Great thread by a sitting U.S. Rep on politics, punditry, elections, & leadership in the context of climate change, energy policy, markets & the price effect on consumers. If you read btwn the lines, there is a subtext abt oligarchy, i.e. energy producers, & their sycophants, supplicants & shills.

Reactionary movements/parties/leaders posit oversimplified & idealized versions of reality bc it helps to justify, instill & maintain hierarchies of deference to authority & obedience to power. Binary gender supports patriarchal hierarchy, in wch men hold more authority/power in families/society.

Racists & fascists don't really believe state's rights are sacrosanct?

If Silver would read HRC's *How the South Won the Civil War* he'd learn that "progressivism" meant vastly different things at diff times in our nation's history. At one point it meant bringing commerce & religion to the untamed west. "Progressive" just means fix an imbalance or work for common good.

For anyone who has overweening trust in AI as anything remotely resembling intelligence, what happened to all that intelligence in this case?

If corruption isn't the biggest problem in the U.S., what is?

To continue winning, DEMs should also talk about the rampant corruption of the Trump regime & the GOP, a/w/a the general derogation of the rule of law to political whim, i.e., denying due process in enforcing immigration & the extra-judicial murder of or war crimes against Venezuelans in intn'l H2OS

The more people cede agency & autonomy to automation, algorithms, AI, & authority figures, the fewer corporeal & intellectual skills & abilities they cultivate, & the flatter their sphere of experiences becomes.

Every DEM/DNC official should be talking about the rampant corruption of the Trump regime at every opportunity. Talk about the types--the acquisition of money or power--& the modes--quid pro quos, patronage, influence peddling, favorable & no-bid contracts, etc.--& unscrupulous means--opaqueness.

America is a religion only for a segment of the pop who don't question the convention of eschewing, rejecting & proscribing the application of reason--no matter how flawlessly logical--except when used to justify or rationalize obedience to religious, patriotic, et al, authority.

Every U.S. middle-school boy has had this thought. That's how original & profound it is.

Whether or not these actually were drug traffickers, framing their activity as a "fight" is in character for Tom Cotton, cowardly & disingenuous.

Hey DNC & DEMs, If you are still frittering away the hours trying to devise a powerful slogan to compete w/ MAGA, how about: Make Corruption Illegal Again!

Federal Government Announces Racial Profiling Campaign, Explains It’s Because of the President’s Personal Bigotry

Both corrupxn & the N. American--esp U.S.--desire for convenience are cultural artifacts of a society born of the ideas of the enlightenment but now succumbing to the ethos of a capitalist system wch generates less income from producxn than from commodities, finance, rent/use & bills of goods.

In this case it's diff to tell whthr the poster who yelled at Newsom was being self-aggrandizing, or expressing moral outrage. Mallow, who assumed self-aggrandizement was the motivation, is the cynic. Nnthlss, ambiguity, cynicism, self-aggrandizement & moral outrage are all problematic/limiting.

Why do we uncritically accept that "culture wars" or any combative orientation are the best, or only way, of political praxis? Just bc someone frames politics as battle, doesn't mean that other strategies, eg., solidarity, shouldn't be pursued.

She's asserting, w/o Const'ly or legislatively granted authority, that she has the power to unilaterally decide wch judicial "orders . . . are lawful and binding," rather than deferring to the rule of law, & abiding judicial processes & due process. Historically, she'll be known as a petite tyrant.

Marco Rubio knew the truth 9 years ago, but he sold his soul for power. Yet he was correct: He will one day have to explain his support for Trump, and this is not going to end well.

She's not there to make a credible argument, bc there is no practical, legal or moral justification for bombing boats--even if they had credible evidence the boats contained drugs destined for the U.S.--1,000s of miles from the U.S. She's there to sell fear-based outrage & be combative.

Trump/GOP/Cons' authority & power wrests on simultaneously representing themselves as victims & vanquishers--a mendacious rhetorical fantasy wch bcms ever more evidently paradoxical as Trump, et al, bully gov't, public--NGO's--& private institutions, & ppl.

Our sys isn't really "designed toward self-destruction". It was designed to protect/promote elite power/interests, w/ safeguards that are impotent agnst shameless & arrogant ambition, wch escalate thru a pos fdbck loop. Self-destrucxn, of that sys, & thereby of elites, is the unintended consequence.

If this man is not running for office, I respectfully request that he consider doing so! Rarely does anyone hit so hard with factual details & contextualizing truths. Most resort to mere rhetoric to hit so hard, but rhetoric can offend those who are most uninformed, so it fails it's mission.

This is a brilliantly peremptory, yet eminently humane way to defend against bigotry & simultaneously give an individual the opportunity to grow by amending their personal bias.

It's imperative to avoid conflating vulnerability & weakness. Trump is vulnerable, but as long as he holds office he's not weak. In fact, the more vulnerable he is/feels, the more dangerous he becomes by virtue of the power--both formal to command, & rhetorical, to persuade--he wields over ppl.

Trump & the GOP's #OneBigBombasticLie is bad for anyone outside the top 10% income &/or wealth bracket. It's just a matter of time before the harm will be experienced. Some are delayed a year or 2, like the lower tax bracket cuts wch expire in 1 - 2 yrs while the upper bracket cuts last.

No matter how paltry the data, how specious the premise, or that their "theory" is devoid of causality, if the Right can play aggrieved victim rather than contextualize data, analyze premises, or admit their theory is spurious, they will build a grievance narrative. Any credulous cohort will do.

This Warzel piece reveals the shallowness, callowness & callousness of every elite who had contact w/ Epstein. Their interactions are all transactional, i.e., offers or offer-seeking in the mode of quid pro quos.

A 27 screen cineplex operaring 24 hours/day doesn't project this much. Not even in a year.

That algorithms & AI often fail to distinguish reality from fiction is reason enough not to rely on either to judiciously & humanely mediate social interaction or the search for truth, i.e., to remove & dispose of errors injected--intentionally or not--into discourse or scientific inquiry.

The DOJ is suing California over Prop 50, saying it's a "brazen power grab that tramples on civil rights and mocks the democratic process." Nothing mocks democracy like a president ordering red states to gerrymander while prosecuting a blue state for letting its voters decide.

If this keeps up AI won't evolve to kill off or enslave the human race, at least not directly. Human use of AI will crash the world economy by making the internet & digital technologies unusable for trade & communication. That will unleashed chaos & uncertainty, but at least AI will be thwarted. 🤦‍♂️

This is a good assessment of the larger political realities behind & implicit in the DEM+1 defectors' capitulation to Trump/GOP. There are a couple of points I wish to expound on. A thread: www.thenation.com/article/poli...

Great short thread on the intangibles of institutional politics in an age of unscrupulous political partisans & the replacement of policy discourse w/ rhetoric & recrimination, i.e., thunderdome politics.

Durbin fails to understand how the GOP works, wch is, adversely to democracy, justice, decency & basic good-faith. The GOP must not be trusted to keep promises & obey norms because they have repeatedly reneged & transgressed. Norms apply only to those who obey them. Guess who obeys? Every damn time!

Expel the yes votes from the party and cut off all their access to fundraising, then remove Schumer from leadership. Anything less is mealy-mouthed coward bullshit.

Using retail consumption as any kind of indicator of economic prosperity doesn't capture all the unrequited demand for luxury goods due to inequality, wch wld negate much of the perception of prosperity. Trying to objectively define or quantify prosperity this way is delusional; it's truly relative.

This post and the one it's quoting each deserve more than one like and re-post. Alas!

I have no notes . . . because I can't stop shaking my damn head.

Have you heard of “The Populist Playbook?” A few years ago, I posted what I still consider one of my most important messages. It was about “The Populist Playbook” that I’ve watched play out often over my 33+ years of city planning. Since then, it’s only gotten worse. Do the steps sound familiar?

There's an asymmetry of purposes, priorities & realities btwn L & R intellectuals that reorients the salience of the OP's point below. LW intellectuals (LWi) read RWi to comprehend & analyze RW ideas & policies, & LW criticism of RW ideas & policies naturally flows from that academic endeavor.

I second this motion!

"[A] strong pro-democracy conservative party" is a whimsical notion, not a serious idea. Conservatism is inherently illiberal, i.e., rigidly conventional & intransigently opposed to non-traditional ideas & ways of being.