Kyle H

For me - I absolutely do have that fear in the back of my heart that misogyny and vitriol would play against AOC.

But I've voted every election on the principle of "supporting the best candidate on this ballot." That's quite likely to be AOC in my take. If others fail to see it - that's on them.

Rules were changed after 2016 - supers no longer vote on the first ballot. They only matter if no candidate pulls a majority of pledged delegates on the first round.

Is there a chance a brokered convention goes against her? Yeah - but if it did, it's because she already hadn't pulled a clear win.

Arizona being considered fit for habitation is a sign of man's hubris. 80 in February is absurd

Circumstantial. My mom uses Amazon for lots of stuff. She lives an hour's drive away from any store besides Wal-Mart or DG.

Me? I live a twenty minute WALK from 20+ stores. So the only thing I still use Amazon for is her Christmas present, if it's a year I can't fly home to deliver in person.

Abolish and then prosecute.

Now quit with the empty posturing on social media and introduce the legislation.

Many of us wish we could.

Lord, I see what you have done for others, and I want that for me

If we've learned anything from the part of our history where we created the extremely powerful, world-changing, uncontrollable new technology of a social internet, it should be that whatever is about to happen with AI will, if nothing else, be extremely dumb.

Agreed. If Beshear was just a *bit* better at putting on the sort of boisterous charisma that people interpret as "strength", he'd be my top pick for 2028.

As an expat from Kentucky - it boggles my mind that *Kentucky* is the state with both of the least-bad Republicans left in Congress. Hell, even that dying turtle McConnell made a few good critiques of RFK's anti-vax nonsense the last time he was able to form complete sentences on camera.

So I figure we try our best to get a better candidate than Newsom - and if we stop tearing each other's throats out that might even happen.

Then, either way, we try to win the election.

And we only have to do the civil war thing if that second step fails.

Well, I've read enough history to know the body count of that civil war is going to be disastrously massive if it comes. Literally the only worse outcome is the institutional genocide MAGA wants.

Anyone that thinks Newsom is worse than civil war, is as out of touch with reality as the MAGA cult.

Shitty tool still beats nothing.

And if you have nothing to offer besides insults, at the idea that I might prefer the shitty tool to giving up, I'm just gonna spend three years hoping we can save this country without your contribution.

On the one hand - no, because the human suffering involved in a crash sucks, esp. when the folks in power don't believe in any sort of aid or safety net.

On the other hand - kinda yes, because the low-info voters figure out they made mistakes when it hurts.

Honestly? Same. But I'd still rather have Newsome than Vance, Rubio, or any Republican save Kinzinger.

I draw daylight between the primaries (goal: getting a good candidate), and the general (goal: beating the GOP with whatever we can). Not sure others are grasping the distinction.

And the high likelihood you are right on that is why I keep specifying that we need to spend the whole primary fighting as hard as we can to avoid him being the candidate.

And if we fail at that... are we gonna give up? Or fight to beat the fascists with the (substandard) tools we have?

Those who do study history are doomed to watch everyone else repeat it.

A disgusting and disgraceful betrayal of this nation's ideals. When the decent folk of this country wrest control from the MAGA cult, there's going to need to be [comment redacted for moderation purposes]

I'm not saving anyone by standing aside and letting Republicans win.

The Dems need to do better. I don't disagree. And we need to spend the primary forcing better on them. But giving up if we don't get a "good" candidate still enables the worst-case outcome (which is NOT a Newsom presidency).

I hope to hell Newsom isn't the candidate. And I'll be spending the whole primary pushing for better (IMO, that means AOC or Pritzker).

But if the cheerleaders who take his social media trolling as the entirety get their way.... come general season, he's still vastly preferable to Vance or Rubio.

Hope you don't live in a state where the outcome would be affected, then. It's one thing to say that in California or Vermont. Another to say it in Georgia.

There's still ten thousand acres of space between Newsom, and Vance or Rubio. The spineless opportunist is better than the open fascist.

The reason is that he's a shameless opportunist who thought he needed to pivot right during that weird season where MAGA seemed to be winning the cultural narrative.

That clout-chasing will pull him left as MAGA implodes. He's weak and lacks principles. We can bully him into doing the right thing.

I want to save as many people as I can. When the alternative is the literal fascism proposed by the MAGA cult, and we're trapped in a FPTP hellscape that makes third-party options nonviable, that means dealing w/ imperfect choices.

The imperative is to beat Newsom in the primary.

Newsom doesn't hate trans people - and he's passed quite a bit of pro-trans-rights legislation in CA. He's just an opportunistic snake willing to talk from both sides of his mouth.

I'd MUCH prefer a real ally - but the snake can at least be cajoled into doing the right thing out of self-interest.

That's why he's dead last (of actually-probable contenders in 2028) in my primary picks. If the political headwinds are favorable enough he could win, we can get someone more ambitious like AOC through instead.

But if the primary goes to him, I'm still casting my ballot and hoping for his win.

I gotta be honest - the only material I've seen from accounts claiming to be from Gaza in months are very obvious spam accounts trying to get money sent to unverified destinations.

Wouldn't surprise me if the content flags to crack down on that problemare just casting too wide a net.

Just has me wondering two things:
1) where's the tank getting sourced from.
2) is the answer to 1 more reliable and/or easier than stealing the tools?

Cuz right now it sure seems like we have no tank, & have no outside friends willing to provide one. But do have a chance at securing the tools.

Spanish, German, and Assimilation at Gunpoint It’s a funny thing, looking at the last couple of days and the discourse around the Super Bowl.

I was feeling a kind of way today. So I wrote some thoughts down on my Substack. Impromptu and minimal editing, so read at your own risk.

substack.com/home/post/p-...

I reserve my belligerence and insults for people that actively voted for Trump AFTER we all saw Project 2025. Left/liberal infighting is largely dumb and unproductive.

Ehh. There's some amount of friction, debate, and infighting that is good, especially this early in a campaign season. Have our ideas and our goals and hash out which is best/most popular.

It's the folks who refuse to band together on election day that worry me. But we're not there yet.

It's honestly funny - they're pivoting today to whining about obscene lyrics. Feels like every halftime show for a couple of decades now has had people complaining about obscene lyrics.