Marvin Justice

Rewatched Pulp Fiction for the first time in years and had a similar feeling. I remember sitting in the theater in amazement while the full credits scrolled by in the 90's. Now it's still a great movie but hardly seems so unique.

Trump controls the White House and both houses of Congress and will continue to do so for the next 12 excruciating months but hey, we're ahead in the opinion polls. I feel so much better.

that's the popular normie position. As evidence I point to prop 209 in California which was reaffirmed overwhelming in 2020.

Hate to defend McCardle who is loathsome but that's not quite it. The argument I think is that the solution to the discrimination of the past is not to discriminate in the opposite direction now. Rather we should adopt neutral rules going forward. That's not my personal position but I think ...

Don't think so. I was living in Queens during the time of Abbott's buses and many locals were quite unhappy. There were even protests in Harlem against the commandeering of city housing for migrant shelters. The daily migrant inflows in 2023 were 5X what they were under Obama.

That's not what the polling shows. Sure Trump is underwater on immigration now but Biden had even lower numbers.

Those deportations were almost all removals of recently arrived people by CBP in the border region not ICE raids in the interior. Very different from Trump.

Barack Obama was ridiculous?

Yes and a similar thermostatic backlash occurred after Trump 1.0 which, unfortunately, Biden overinterpreted to move too far in the opposite direction with disastrous consequences for the Democratic party. We simply need a return to Obama's policies.

Sure, my mistake. What the California prop did was ban consideration of race, sex, ethnicity from state hiring and school admissions. Things like providing a Muslim prayer room etc which might come under the heading of DEI are not prohibited and I don't think most people object to those.

Anecdotally I worked my whole life in tech, first in Silicon Valley then in NYC, where ~40% of my coworkers were Asian immigrants and they were largely against DEI. In fact I think for the prop 209 repeal in 2020 they came out against it even more than whites if I recall.

The main source is simply prop 209 which is about the most direct empirical evidence you can get. But it's one issue among many so I can't point to any specific case where a candidate lost because of their stance on DEI. Plenty of polling out there about white working class and woke Dems etc.

Absolutely. Just pointing out that when put directly to the voters it's a losing issue --- even in one of our most liberal states. CRT is fine as an academic discipline but the Democrats pay a penalty if they lean too hard into it.

In 1996 California voters overwhelmingly approved a constitutional amendment banning AA (prop 209). I was there and was quite dismayed. Then in 2020 they reaffirmed that ban by an even bigger margin. This is an old issue and not rw propaganda.

Yes and Mill died 150 years ago. The sleight of hand this article pulls is recounting the egregious racism of history and then cutting directly to the present leaving the reader to conclude "we need to do something". Affirmative action/DEI are broadly unpopular and drive voters toward Republicans.

I think you're over your skis at this moment in history and only making things worse.

I read it and 100% agree with everything it says about the deplorable facts of US history. Where I depart is the conclusion which points to Yglesias as the boogie man when the real culprit is the American voter. We had 300 yrs of slavery then 100 yrs of Jim Crow then 50 yrs of basic civil rights ...

California voters have twice rejected affirmative action --- the 2nd time in 2020 by an even bigger margin than the first. That's *California* for god's sake. You are 100% right in everything you say and I applaud you. But it's a complete disaster politically for the Democrats.

Yes you have the moral high ground vis a vis Yglesias but if your way leads to continued electoral defeat at the hands of Republicans does it not give you pause?

Bail? For a knife murder?

Voters Were Fed Up Over Immigration. They Voted for Trump. (Published 2024)

Well they do sort of provide anecdotal evidence in one of the linked articles

www.nytimes.com/2024/11/06/u....

'Washington need not apply:' How Mainers are evaluating controversy-laden Graham Platner • Maine Morning Star The daily headlines about the sexist, racist, homophobic and other offensive statements unearthed from Platner’s Reddit history and the candidate’s now-covered tattoo that resembled a Nazi symbol — a ...

Not sure who the "we" you refer to is. I certainly haven't given him any support, but then I don't live there.

"Regardless of how they feel about Platner at this moment, Mainers said they want those “from away” to back off. "

mainemorningstar.com/2025/11/07/w...

Fine, if Platner gets there then demand your senator organize a vote to have him expelled from the caucus. That would be very foolish imo but if outsiders attempt to have him taken off the ballot now then a) it probably wouldn't work and b) they'd wind up tilting the scales even further to Collins.

Guess you guys up there have a hard time with reading comprehension. I just said comment all you want but only Mainers have the ability to do anything about it.

Transplant CA now living in CT. Also I was not saying Will is forbidden from expressing his displeasure, only that when it comes to forcing Platner out a la Biden, it's a matter for state party members to decide. ME is borderline purple with their own ways and I say let's keep them in the tent.

Very different situation with Biden since that was a national party issue. With Platner. Maine D's would have to take the lead. Really isn't anyone from Minnesota's business (or any other state).

Ominous for the Dems unfortunately. High turnout favors the Republicans these days.

John Adams actually *did* say something like that:

www.jewishvirtuallibrary.org/president-jo...

‘A Recipe for Idiocracy’ What happens when even college students can’t do math anymore?

Lengthy discussion in a new Atlantic article today

www.theatlantic.com/ideas/2025/1...

Jeffries backed Maya Wiley in 2021 I seem to recall.