Aeliskandar

I love her so much

Traditional American politics is premised on the notion that sometimes you lose and sometimes you win and you have to deal with that.

But Trumpism is premised on the notion that any result where you don’t win is illegitimate, unlawful, fraud, criminal.

You can’t negotiate with people like that.

The danger of gerrymandering is that it is built on optimizing for very narrow margins of victory, and so if the electorate shifts that MinMaxing can bite you in the ass.

In other news… check out the broad electoral shift that’s happening.

This isn't a closing election argument, it's Vidkun Quisling explaining why surrender is better than resistance.

This is an excellent idea!!!

Comedian Godfrey having a laugh with some of the troops in DC. 🤣

International Space Station taken by a satellite also in orbit above it. The backdrop of the image is Earth's clouds as the image is looking down from above.

2nd Nov. 2025 marks the 25th anniversary of the ongoing human presence off-world.

That is, humans have continuously occupied the ISS for exactly 25 years today.

So if you're <= 24 years old, you've never lived in a world where humans were *only* terrestrial-based.

Image by HEO (from above!)

🔭🧪

69 year old former model with a skin care company. If she’s had work, she had a good surgeon. The ugliness is in her soul that no external looks can hide.

UPDATE: Trump’s FBI Director Kash Patel just fired a guy he blames for outing him for taking a jet to see his girlfriend sing the national anthem at a wrestling match.

‘Veep’ had nothing on this crew. 🎪
news.bloomberglaw.com/us-law-week/...

Trump administration tells Congress war law doesn’t apply to cartel strikes The Office of Legal Counsel told select lawmakers that the executive branch is not bound by the War Powers Resolution, which requires congressional approval for any military action that exceeds 60 day...

Not a day goes by without an illegal act.

www.washingtonpost.com/national-sec...

Taiwan commissions new fleet of US-made Abrams M1A2T tanks Taiwan’s army commissioned a new fleet of US-made Abrams M1A2T tanks on Friday in a ceremony attended by President Lai Ching-te, marking a significant step in the island’s ongoing effort to modernize ...

Payoff to someone. Really DUMB weapons system choice.

apnews.com/video/taiwan...

These are all the same thing. 1. When ProPublica emailed questions for a profile of the chief justice of the North Carolina Supreme Court, they received a response from the communications director of the state Republican Party. He...

Three examples in one 24-hour period of people threatening to use the power of the state against those holding them to account.
www.pbump.net/o/these-are-...

With China Truce, U.S. National Security Controls Now Appear Up for Negotiation

Assolini is insane. www.nytimes.com/2025/10/30/u...

Opinion | Trump Lost the Trade War to China

Chinese totally beat Trump. If Republicans would stop trying to take health insurance away from lower income Americans & reopen government, Congress could take aggressive steps to reduce American dependency on critical imports from China but they won’t.

www.nytimes.com/2025/10/29/o...

Drunk lies

Trump says South Korea will be able to build nuclear-powered submarine Trump’s announcement was short on detail but came a day after he finalized a trade deal with South Korea that includes a pledge of $350 billion in investment.

A ROK owned shipyard in Philly building SSNs and SSAIPs actually might be a good result bringing ROK into AUKUS. www.washingtonpost.com/world/2025/1...

Democrats are furious that the Trump Administration held a briefing on Capitol Hill today about U.S. military strikes on suspected drug boats. Only Republicans were invited. This is from Sen. Mark Warner D-VA.

Mike, do you do anything other than jack-off to porn and lick Trump’s ass?

Trump turned a visit with US troops in Japan into another campaign rally — disgracing the role of Commander in Chief & using our military as political props.

This from the guy who dodged Vietnam and called our troops “suckers and losers.” What a disgrace. www.msnbc.com/rachel-maddo...

Never in the history of the US has any president openly and repeatedly called for the investigation, arrest & prosecution of his political opponents. While many continue to shrug these things off and normalize them, I will never stop pointing out that this is what autocrats do.

China Against China Xi Jinping confronts the downsides of success.

Excellent article.

www.foreignaffairs.com/china/agains...

Vietnam Buys 40 Russian Su-35 Fighters in Covert $8 Billion Weapons Pact—With Oil Payments to Dodge Sanctions Vietnam has ramped up military acquisitions from Russia through covert financial channels, as highlighted in a New York Times investigation.

VN hates and fears PRC. VN won’t get front-line U.S. aircraft. RU can renege. RU gets oil.

united24media.com/latest-news/...

Chatbots — LLMs — do not know facts and are not designed to be able to accurately answer factual questions. They are designed to find and mimic patterns of words, probabilistically. When they’re “right” it’s because correct things are often written down, so those patterns are frequent. That’s all.

A short term deal to extend ACA subsidies one year isn’t ideal but it would instantly make another extension a central issue in the midterms which wouldn’t be the worst thing for Dems.

centrists will tell you to your face that we all need to abandon identity issues, and focus on kitchen table issues instead and yet when a leftist candidate runs a generational campaign based on kitchen table issues, it's the centrists weaponizing identity politics to smear the leftist.

Rooftop Solar Could Save Americans $1 Trillion Dollars But we have to make it easier to permit and install

We could save more than $1 trillion nationally and cut utility bills for the average household by $1,600 per year by streamlining permitting of rooftop solar. No federal policy needed -- this can all be done by cutting red tape at state and local level. @michael-thomas.bsky.social 1/

Glory to Ukraine

Walz: "We have a federal system that we're all in it together, we help other states when they need it, but we have a situation where they're trying to divide us & provide specific aid to states that they like at the moment, which is absolutely unconscionable... either that or give us our money back"

Walz: "They are paying contractors to pay down the East Wing but they're not putting money into the food bank. So if there's a sense of frustration in America, it's very real ... when the White House press secretary said their top priority is the ballroom, we could not disagree more."

You’re Being Lied to About Graham Platner We read Graham Platner’s whole Reddit archive. The vilification of the Maine candidate for Senate doesn’t square with what he actually wrote in his posts.

More data points suggesting he’s real.

jacobin.com/2025/10/plat...