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softlynow

Certifiably Surly
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Everything posted by softlynow

  1. Way to go out in a limb.
  2. Has anyone ever seen him and bad teammate in a room together?
  3. No, it's realized that for them, every accusation is a confession. You really think the piece of shit who tried a coup on 1/6/21 (and all this other shit) is going to go quietly this time? But go ahead, ana2, both sides this.
  4. It means there are a number of scenarios where, if we actually do have elections, the result will be predetermined or won’t actually matter.
  5. We won’t have real ones. As someone way down the potential state’s enemies list, I should be more sanguine about my personal situation. I just can’t be. My hope is I slowly get numb to it all. My children are still young and I need to keep myself going for them. Kudos to you for keeping your chin up.
  6. Don’t do that to yourself. They’re “concerned.” Nothing more. Hope is gonna drive you crazy. All that’s left to do is watch the train wreck and figure out how to make it through to the other side a couple decades from now.
  7. Law schools are behind the times, still teaching that the rule of law, precedence, and stare decisis matter. I bet they still cling to the antiquated idea that no one is above the law.
  8. Not yet. But they will very soon.
  9. I will never lose all hope that some things are immutable. I didn't lose that hope when Charlie botched a coin toss, when Arky held us to one Watson in Houston, when our HFC cried on the sidelines and when aggy landed the "best recruiting class EVARRR," and certainly won't now. Now, democracy? That's done. Every other decent thing about this country? Yeah, America is shit just like all the other countries to exist. The very idea that we'll go down swinging before handing almost literally everything of value over to New York and South African conmen and a Russian autocrat? No, looks like we'll just type out our grievance then trudge willingly into proverbial boxcars. But, my good man, aggy will always be aggy. See, box score aggy at Texas, 1/25/2025.
  10. Except 1939, if you're aggy.
  11. I may re-read of The Guns of August instead of doomscrolling for the next couple weeks.
  12. You're simply being obtuse at this point. They aren't going to run without some support. You know better, but your framing of this holds out the Demcratic Party as a corporation with agents in every county and district. They're simply choosing not to run people in Montgomery County, for example. It isn't that there are plenty Dems there who would think about running for something, but understand the futility of it. Instead its DemCo simply choosing to sit it out. "Contest every race." Requires candidates, right? Where there is local support they do run. Where there isn't, they'll need outside money if you're going to run the touchdown play. Contest every race either requires money that isn't there or a shift in ideology that shifts the entire landscape. It requires an entirely different big tent. Running better national and statewide candidates out there, ones who seem genuine, but are simply warmed over centrists, will also do nothing in giving it a run in 3144 counties. Your point that the party as constructed is spinning its wheels is sound. The bullet point "contest every race" is not. A better party might get there organically.
  13. It is for the specific thing you were talking about.
  14. What you're quoting is focused on your "contest every race" comment. That only happens organically, absent gobs of money. I think it only happens organically with a dramatic idealogical shift in the party. Until then, you're relying on what you abhor - the savior candidate that connects despite the party still only offering something incrementally better, or at least less bad, than the other guys.
  15. I agree that this is the area Dems need to examine and shift. However, questions abound. Coming off as genuine on those 3 will require a dramatic shift in party messaging. A candidate here and there who "feels your pain" won't cut it anymore. Is the electorate ready for what will be derided as a return to mid-20th c. liberalism or an even further left shit to social democracy? Pubs only need to dust off "tax and spend" and the "nine most terrifying words" pablum. So, do you keep enough of the current base in the fold as you, hopefully, pick up non-voters looking for real expansion of the safety net? Can you peel away folks from the GOP with an economic focus? How do you peel them away when they're disinclined to side with people they see as satanists and n-/gay lovers? Considering their performance in 2024, we've probably entered "worth a shot" territory. Obama was wrong. It was not he but Trump that ended the Reagan era. That era was marked by 2 major parties much closer in ideology than either would want to admit. I think the usefullness of the Third Way has passed. The problem remains, though, in getting Dem-aligned special interest groups to see it that way, too.
  16. I didn't miss that thesis. But framing the problem the way you have, you're actually stating that it's an intractible one, that's it's one requiring enormous and unavailable resources to overcome.
  17. So you're telling people who want to win Dem primaries to eschew the power brokers and special interest groups and instead do something completely different than everyone who becomes a Dem nominee in every race in the country. Sure. Is the Dem party supposed to only run folks who are fabulously wealthy for county clerk on up? There is not near enough money to put up sacrificial lambs in 80/20 Pub counties and districts. You would need money to get folks to get their brains bashed in running those races. And that's just to get them to run. Dems don't contest a bunch of races because politically-minded folks in that area either just aren't Dems or don't have time and/or money to waste for absolutely no reason. It isn't a top down executive call to not have candidates. Let me risk being doxxed for a moment. I've run for office. I'm sure you know, but to win the primary, all that was required was winning over a majority of the 300 or so local party activists. This is true for both parties. Those activists are members of local PACs that put out mailers with recommended candidates. The 10s of 1000s of voters that show up can all be seen with these sheets, and the 1-2% that engage with campaign volunteers and candidates on their way in usually look to their sheet as the conversation unfolds. I had many say I'd won them over, but who knows. In campaigning for 9 months, I personally got the word out to maybe 1-2% of people who voted. Obviously this is not the kind of campaign for which anyone ran TV ads. Street signs, a couple billboards, and some internet ads. Beyond races where TV ads do run, the PACs basically choose the winner of the primary, and in tons or races, the primary winner of one particular party is the winner in the general. With a shitload of money, you can overwhelm the local political "machine." That's it. I've said this before, but your proposal requires something like a 10-1 or better ratio of dollars raised and spent by Dems over Pubs. Your proposal is akin to fans calling for a coach to call the touchdown play.
  18. It's amazing so many don't see that this was the endgame all along. Every "lean libertarian" dipshit always trying to convince us that we're the ones with the wool over our eyes who didn't abandon that ship in 2016 needs their face eaten repeatedly. Every "Christian" that excused the obvious depravity of the dishonorable conman from New York needs the rudest fucking awakening imaginable. Every country club Pub who didn't abandon ship and at least leave the President line blank in 2016 and on needs their trust fund or 401k cut down to "fuck I gotta actually work" levels. This country cannot be simply fixed. We know now it needs a hard reboot. In short:
  19. Then there's no room for her at Initech.
  20. Meh. That will come too late. Once the Pentagon is completely loyal to him, he won't even need public opinion on his side. The 2nd Amendment as bulwark against tyranny may get tested, though probably not. But if it is, we'll see how silly that BS is.
  21. My understanding of the 2019 ban is that it allowed contracts to complete so municipalities wouldn’t get sued, and the last contract in the state ran out last year sometime.
  22. Impeachment? Lol. Al Green just made the forthcoming states enemies list. The better question is whether the folks on that list “mysteriously” fall out of windows in the next few years, or if Trump/Musk secret death squads feel the need to jazz things up a bit.
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