Vermillion

@ClashAndBurn 's doomerist realism makes mine look like child's play. As for my absence, I've realized I can only deal with personal problems or the news hellscape, not both. Not much in the grander scheme of things have changed except for Ossoff getting the early Beto treatment instead of Beshear. Good luck with the primary buzzsaw I guess.

El-Sayed is going to lose the general if he makes it thanks to a successful campaign towards older black moderates to paint him as racist and sexist. Stevens is going to lose the general if she makes it to the general thanks to backlash from the demographics AIPAC has to turn off for her to win the primary, specifically low-turnout progressives and namely young men of color. Hasan Piker's theory of Ossoff playing 4D chess as a Jew is ludicrous. He will only win if he emerges late after the circular firing squad of Shapiro, Newsom, Emanuel and Harris all end each other's campaigns out of spite and ego. The long term damage done to the party and widening of the demographic fissures in the Democratic coalition is going to be felt for decades. Ossoff will only win against Rubio if he manages to placate progressives in the Upper Midwest since the Liz Cheney strategy already failed. How he plans to do that without actually changing policy positions is anyone's guess.

Regardless of the CCP blocking the WHO, we're never going to get answers on the outsized risks of gain of function research thanks to Rand Paul's sinophobia and Fauci's allies circling the wagons as a result. I've got multiple problems with everyone involved in this entire debacle but today just serves a reminder there's never going to be any traction on it. If we ever have another pandemic in my lifetime, we're all ****ed.

Ugh I have so much to catch up on Anyways @FameFatale apparently Fauci's testifying

The blinds have been circulating about this man going back to the 2000s. When #MeToo came up and James Franco went down I always found it odd this man escaped accountability, especially given his Mars Island cult retreats. I'm not sure what legal accountability looks like at this point, but both his peaks in film and music are long gone so there's no point in any PR backlash to speak of.

This film and its music came to me at a really crucial point in my life. Thankful for his contributions. RIP.

UK just brought more charges, seeking their extradition…coordinated clearly with the feds. OP updated.

The strategies being utilized with Haley Stevens are pissing me off so much and yet I knew they were coming. I'm just so angry that I'm approaching Susan Sarandon acceleration territory. The shaming on the left once she gets the nomination will be endless starting with anyone largely crediting her war chest being shouted down as antisemitic. The problem is when they do that they're going to prevent the exact turnout that she needs in the general from young voters of color. The elephant in the room here isn't that AIPAC is interested in Haley winning the general. They want her to win the primary to prove a point in discouraging any future pushback.

Yeah, we need to extrapolate this tweet nationally re: Kamala. I mean, this is it. It's what will boil down to her loss in 28 to Marco. Well, that and Rahm, Gavin and Josh agreeing on a suicide pact on any party unity because they realize none of them will make the nomination because they can't piss off black women by shaming the former. At the end of the day, there is no Democratic voter coalition and it's the consultants job in the beltway to essentially paper over worsening divisions to convince the MSM there is one. On multiple fronts, I've never seen it this bad. Starting most alarmingly with Hakeem's blundering efforts and significant backlash, including already calls for his ouster. And the Congressional Black Caucus realizing that cultural shaming and 2010's better-angels platitudes are no longer working.

As the effort to racialize Abdul falls flat with younger black voters, the other strategies AIPAC and their offshoots are taking to work on older ones (and not just on economic arguments being seen as a pipe dream but on culture war strategy) are so fascinating. I don't know how to start to unpack it, but it's going to have to happen at some point sooner rather than later. I've been gone a while dealing with family and work crises, otherwise I'd do it more here. All I keep thinking about was the immensely substantive contributions here from @canvey916 about a year ago on a related subject I'm not going to try to paraphrase here because it wouldn't do it justice. Haley Stevens eventually winning the primary depresses me in a way that's deeper than Trump because with the latter the institutional and cultural rot was obvious. With the former, it's the system working as intended, culture be damned. The question is when is that no longer sustainable.

The elephant in the room for history will be that Trump did the same thing to multiple minors throughout the 80's and 90's. If Donald turns him down he might as well say as much. He's got little else to lose at this point. He won't get sued for defamation either as it'd invite discovery, especially as he's at a higher risk once he's leaves the presidency.

A Republican.

As relative to a woman that ended up being a life long caregiver to multiple people, I just hope she was not in too much pain when she passed. It's all we can ask for. As for Bonnie, such a legend. You'll be missed.

The notion of Elaine Chao ripping off that neck scarf on her way back to Beijing with Turtle on life support while she screams I'M FREE!!!111!1!

Maine is not Michigan. Do I get to play the hardened cynic here given the demographics and imply that the culture wars still matter more than economic policy for more of the white working class in the former where there's more of them than the latter? Because Susan ain't winning on economic policy. We could unpack incumbency and vibes but I don't have the energy.

I can't sleep, so much for the wine, out of melatonin Four months long news cycle in one night. Lemme unpack here.

Incredibly raw posts here. I'd say it was cathartic if I wasn't constantly distracted into feeling like the world was about to end every hour on the hour thanks to Truth Social and ****ing Polymarket I've had too much wine. Go Belgium, serves the Americans right Night

What a night

We actually don't know that and we'll never know that since there were other progressives that wanted to run and tried but never got the national financing or attention. Chuck's cohort went to Janet and the ones who hated Chuck went to Graham.