Eh… imperialism doesn’t end with the fascist, it just has to recalibrate. An inconvenience at worst.

The election was theirs to lose, and by God did they ever do what they’re best at.

Wolff has been like this for decades. He’s as craven as the rest of them. But he’s also very often right.

Or you’re listening to a podcast and space out a few seconds. Then you skip back to listen again and zone out again. Rinse and repeat until you don’t care anymore.

I also don’t need to miss the context of the discussion…

Speaking of missing the context, my initial comment, to which you replied, was:

Still maddening [that so many vote for him], but…

Two things can be true at the same time. It’s maddening that so many vote for him, the electoral college is why republicans still win, and, I’ll throw you a bone, the electoral college probably wouldn’t be a problem if fewer people voted for Trump—but it would still be a damn stupid way to run an election.

Let me introduce a hypothetical: the electoral college didn’t exist, Republicans saw they couldn’t win on current policies as far back as 2012 and were forced to moderate to win the popular vote. We might not be in this current political climate in the first place

It is still bonkers that…

Yes, and my initial comment was:

Still maddening, but…

we’re in violent agreement

Depends how loose your definition of half is, I guess. Trump got 46.8% of the popular vote in 2020 vs Biden’s 51.3%.

2016: Trump 41.1% (still won) vs Clinton 48.2%. 2012: Obama 51.1% (winner) vs Romney 47.2%. 2008: Obama 52.9% (winner) vs McCain 45.7%. 2004: Bush 50.7% (winner) vs Kerry 48.3%. 2000: Bush 47.9% (still won) vs Gore 48.4%. 1996: Clinton 49.2% (winner) vs Dole 40.7% vs Perot 8.4%. 1992: Clinton 43% (winner) vs Bush 37.4% vs Perot 18.9%. 1988: Bush 53.4% (winner) vs Dukakis 45.6%. And that’s as far as I could be bothered to go back.

With the exception of Bush in 2004, every Republican president since 1988 won only because of the electoral college. See the problem?

Half the electoral college vote. Still maddening but let’s not forget that a shitty election system is the only thing keeping the Republicans in power now

This is not a thousand year conflict. It’s modern imperialism

What a coincidence. I never knew this despite my penchant for useless trivia but just yesterday at an airport I overheard some high school kids asking each other trivial pursuit questions and this was one. The next day: this post. Uncanny.

Water is wet. More at 11

As a Norwegian: seconded. It’s tough to get real close and personal with Nordic people. We have smaller friend groups and don’t swap out friends often, but that is largely because we are quite loyal. So when you’re in, you’re in to stay.

It’s Shroedinger’s ethics. You can’t really know until you open the upstanding pastor’s secret box and it happens to be full of CSAM and bodies.

What.the.fuck.are.you.talking.about. Have you not clocked that your comment comes off as if you’re a classic libertarian? If that’s not what you intended, take a goddamn internet break and work on your communication skills

Your “state oppression” is my “collecting taxes, enacting gun legislation, providing public services and enforcing age of consent laws” and to tell you the truth that sounds pretty good to me

It’s incredible. “That’s lovely”, the flavor. “That’s better”, the dulling of the pain of existence. art

NYT tomorrow: “Harris under fire for [placeholder] after controversial Trump radio interview”

I’m not going to do your homework for you. Suffice is to say China is still an emerging market and all indicators aside from exports are unusually low for the kind of economy China is. I don’t know what kind of point you’re trying to make because you seem to be skirting the issue. None of the pieces I linked proclaim China is about to collapse, only pointing out the challenges. Again: what the hell is your point?

https://tradingeconomics.com/china/consumer-confidence https://www.china-briefing.com/news/chinas-august-2024-economy-record-export-growth-amid-domestic-challenges/ https://www.euronews.com/business/2024/09/09/europes-luxury-goods-market-set-to-feel-the-pinch-as-china-growth-weakens https://www.msn.com/en-us/money/markets/analysis-chinas-monetary-volleys-miss-key-threat-to-economic-growth/ar-AA1r9V9Q

Plus anecdotal stories from people I know that traveled to China in the past few months.

Basically, the post-COVID recovery was already slower than expected. Then the property sector all but halted. People are stuck with gig work and temporary contracts.

Why do you imagine the government is doling out money for the first time if everything is peachy?

Lots of people, especially the Chinese. The sentiment about work, investment, economic prospects, consumption are all quite bad. The central bank is cutting rates. Just today the government dipped their toes into the helicopter money game. The only thing keeping the party going is exports