Both Sides Now

Mamdani won the highest amount of votes in a NYC mayoral race since 1965. This is a multi-generational victory. He effectively reengineered the electorate by providing hope. Now, imagine if Democrats had courted progressive and working class votes in 2024 instead of parading around with Liz Cheney to appeal to non-existent "moderate Republicans"? The 50%+ victory will be an important show of consent for his mandate for change. Bravo Mamdani!

Sorry she's such a loser

Thoughts and prayers to the bullet

r/worldnews is notoriously a hasbara playground. If you comment anything remotely negative about Israel, you will be downvoted to oblivion, brigaded and eventually outright banned. If you read the comments on r/news or r/europe, you can see that most of the comments are anti-Israel. Even the federalist European subreddit r/YUROP is not happy with Israel and they are usually hawkish.

Aaaaaand I just started getting BYD ads on my TikTok I would be low-key surprised if Germany allowed this but I would definitely welcome EU swapping the 17% tariffs we place on BYD with the 7% tariff on Tesla. In fact, slap Tesla with 100% tariff for all I care. Every time I see a Tesla now I just think

It's giving Elon ketamine-addled stims

34 year old Ariana deBombed desperate to pick up scraps from Hollywood by punching down on a 23 year old. All this no-hit-wonder is known for is that cringey rap.

Jack is not a particularly talented producer. He is sufficient. The only moment he was reaching toward greatness was with Melodrama and NFR! But still, when you hear the same beats and guitars used years later again on different work - I think you have to reflect on his input critically. What began as extremely limited has now become reductive and we've seen that with the production on albums like Solar Power and TTPD… he is just extremely limited. This is a comment from a decade ago but even still he shouldn't speak on "greats" when he is often the lowest common denominator in a song. How often have we listened to a song and thought "thank GOD Jack produced this because he elevated it"? Never. At best, he is sufficient. At worst he is reductive. Has he ever been great? I don't think so.

I'm so sorry for your loss. Even if it's not strictly about loss, this song is one that I listened to on repeat when I lost a loved one a few years ago. It gave me a lot of comfort somehow.

You know what hell yeah

I suppose his motive is still being established but I do wonder if all the "well, well, well" commenters will be rescinding their analysis now that it's looking like this is a far right terrorist attack. The German authorities have a lot to answer for if this man was known as a potential terrorist. This is highest tragedy regardless of the motive for this sick ****.

Yeah, middle-class, middle-aged white British women seem to be the most easily captured group for the most brain-dead reactionary social movements. At times, even more than their male counterparts, bizarrely. Instead of sympathising with marginalised groups they seem to internalise some sort of victim complex. It's a toxic mix of self-loathing, self-pity and entitlement. Another one in casket.

Are they still milking Juice WRD's demos? Excellent hold for Wicked. It doesn't seem to have a hit on its hands but it should be a fixture in the Top 10 for a while. I wonder if it has enough family appeal to snatch a #1 during the Xmas freeze?

Congrats to the Talk singer but the closet was glass

Of course it is possible to acknowledge that any group can be violently homophobic. Can you give me some examples of German Muslims being violently homophobic though or are you just assuming based on vibes? LGBT activists in Germany are noting a rise in homophobic attacks are linked to the rise in far-right politics. https://www.reuters.com/world/europe/german-lgbtq-activist-warns-over-worrying-hate-crime-rise-2023-07-23/ I would love to hear the Berlin Chief of Police make a statement on far right violence against gays, Jews (and Muslims!). Can you find me a statement that Barbara Slowick made about that?

Germany is so deeply unserious. An antisemitic and homophobic Nazi party is polling at 20% but yeah it's the Muslims that are the existential threat to gays and Jews There is "low" amount of violence - how much is it actually? Can Slowick actually say how many of the 6.2K investigations into antisemitism actually resulted in charges? This year the Berlin police banned people speaking in Irish for fear of antisemitism. Is a man speaking Irish considered an Antisemitism investigation?

Fair enough if you don't like using the modern term. What I am just challenging the notion that modern Israelis/Jewish diaspora are somehow automatically representative of 2000 year old Levantine Jewish people because, clearly, the majority are not… This kind of narrative contributes to the erasure of the indigenous people of the land i.e. modern Palestinians (and yes some Israelis).

There are different "ethnicities" of Jewish people though. Ashkenazi Jews have been in Europe for millennia while Mizrahi Jews are a new ethnic group created by Israel to describe Jews from across the Middle East and North Africa. Ashkenazi Jewish ancestry is a mix of Levantine and European. Some Mizrahi Jews are from the Levant but most aren't. Mary was born in Palestine and so was Levantine. Maybe this girl is of Levantine descent but doesn't really look like it. A modern Palestinian person is more likely to be accurate depiction of Mary. Hollywood is casting Israelis like Gal Gadot (a woman of Polish Jewish descent) as Cleopatra so I don't think they are too interested in accuracy.

Yeah, I don't even read the list if it ranks Like A Virgin in the top 10.

I remember fans calling people racist for not liking positions (genuinely) It just wasn't very good. Most songs sounded like demos. The deluxe songs were even more dull and soulless.

Kamala sending Hillary to Florida to kill all hope and divert campaign funds to Iowa. Oh Smartala…

Two cadavers stand before me. Prior to tonight, you have decided to endorse a genocide against Arabs. The time has come for you to sabotage the presidency for your short miserable life.

At some point in the past, these models on election wins could be informative… but it's quite clear that they are not very informative now. Between the very small amount of people who actually answers polls and how they determine a LV… I really don't think the narrative "it's a coin toss based on the polls" makes sense. Rather than "flip a coin and that's who's president" it seems (in my hopium mind) there's a number of possible scenarios based on how you interpret the polls and early voting patterns. In my completely unqualified opinion, I think the 4 scenarios are in most likely to least likely: 1. The polls are underestimating Harris and she nets more than enough swing states including the Rust Belt, GA and any number of NC, NV or AZ. 2. She ekes out a victory with the Rust Belt. 3. Dump ekes out a victory by snatching one of the Rust Belt (WI) and the rest of the swings. 4. Dump basically repeats vs Hillary with NV also lost. I still think Kamala's best chance would have been to court a broader coalition of young people and progressives rather than enticing ~moderate~ Repubs but here we are… Maybe it was worth it to swing to the right to prevent any attack ads but I don't think she won any extra voters this way. What is clear is the momentum remains with Kamala and I'm sensing a Trump fatigue where would-be Dump voters could just stay at home. Either way, the election is opaque but in my opinion not 50/50. I'm hopeful.