This insider perspective is one of the things I’ll miss most about Twitter if it crashes and burns. Yudin is Head of Political Philosophy at The Moscow School of Social and Economic Sciences
Prospects For Peace Are Bleak
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Category Archives: Politics
Marie Gluesenkamp Perez For The Win
Update. “The House Race That Shows Why Republicans Collapsed in the Midterms“.
“Kent’s weaknesses don’t take away from Gluesenkamp Perez’s accomplishment. She seems to have been the perfect Democrat to win the district. She has a bit of the magic John Fetterman dust many in her party will soon be seeking: She’s young (in her mid-30s) and owns an auto-body shop with her husband. She ran in large part on abortion rights, but is also a gun owner who opposes an assault-weapons ban.
Soon she’ll be a U.S. representative, too. That profile probably wouldn’t have been enough to unseat Herrera Beutler, but voters turned out to be so repulsed by MAGA candidates who question elections and pal around with racists that they were willing to give a chance to the right alternative. Democrats alone couldn’t flip seats like Washington’s Third, but with the help of Trump and the most extreme primary voters in the area, they were finally able to make it happen.”
David Frum On Trump and The Midterms
“The reckoning has been coming; now it’s a moment where the reckoning can’t be denied. Trump has been a very unsuccessful politician compared with other people in the party. He lost the popular vote in 2016, and he lost the House in 2018. He lost both the popular vote and the Electoral College in 2020. His interventions cost Republicans two Senate seats in 2021, and with them control of the U.S. Senate. Now you have the 2022 underperformance by Republicans. And yet, Republicans convinced themselves that this guy was a big winner. The reckoning was always waiting to happen, but now it’s unavoidable. There’s no escape.”
The Greatest Country In the World
Neglected interstate bridges seek billions in infrastructure funds.
“Much of the nation’s transportation infrastructure is in need of rehab or replacement, and bridges are a top concern. An annual infrastructure report card by the American Society of Civil Engineers last year calculated the nation’s bridge repair backlog at $125 billion with 46,000 U.S. bridges in poor condition.”
And in the Upper Left Hand Corner. . .
“Officials in Oregon and Washington have been working together since 2019 on a revived Interstate (Columbia River) Bridge replacement plan, after a previous effort failed in 2013. Cost estimates have ballooned from $3.4 billion almost a decade ago to closer to $5 billion today.”
Inertia-inspired inflation makes it harder to work through the backlog.
A Truly Modern Emperor
Subtitle: When You Fall Out Of Favor In The Chinese Communist Party
People swear off Twitter all the time, thinking it’s a complete waste of time, but it all depends on being very selective about who you follow. This Yang Zhang tweet, the first of many in the thread, is Twitter at its absolute best. It provides an incredible window into the CCP. Similarly, some Russian intellectuals are using Twitter to provide fascinating windows into Russian’s reactions to their government’s war.
Be careful not to paint all social media with too broad a brush.
Friday Required Reading
Maggie Haberman, New York Times political correspondent and author of “Confidence Man: The Making of Donald Trump and the Breaking of America” is controversial. As Kara Swisher says in this interview with Haberman, many on the right and left loathe her. I follow Haberman on Twitter and have been intrigued by the lefty vitriol directed at her. Intrigued to the point of not knowing what to make of it.
But after listening to Swisher’s interview with Haberman, I’m much more sympathetic to her. I found Haberman’s explanations for why she withheld some information from her regular reporting in the Times—the overarching lefty critique—convincing enough to give her a pass.
After reading this excellent review of Confidence Man by Laura Miller in Slate I’m even more inclined to give Haberman a pass.
Miller’s review is so clear and insightful, I’m requiring it. If you start now, you’ll finish before the Mariner game begins.
Election Math To Ponder
Approximately 10.8 million people live in Georgia, a Southeastern state in the (dis)United States. Approximately 60% of those 10.8 million, or 6.5 million, are over 30, the age at which one can serve as a U.S senator. Approximately 55% of people in Georgia are Republicans. That means the Republican Party chose Herschel Walker from among 3.6 million Republicans age 30+.
Will It Into Existence
Trump “will be convicted of multiple felonies“.
George Conway:
“I don’t believe that Trump is going to plea bargain. I think he could go to prison, but it is more likely that he will serve home confinement. In all likelihood, he will be convicted of multiple felonies. I don’t know if there’s ever going to be a perp walk, but I don’t think it’s a fantasy either. There’s a good chance that Trump will end up with a felony conviction. I know he has cut deals in civil cases, but that’s just writing checks. To reiterate, I do not believe that Trump will plead out. This all goes so much to the core of Trump’s identity that he will try to tear the country apart before he settles one of these criminal cases.”
My bet. . . no prison, no home confinement, no convictions, and definitely no perp walk. And no second term. The one prediction I find most convincing. . . he will try to tear the country apart.
Political About-Face To Ponder
“We all need to work together, regardless of party lines,” Mr. DeSantis said on Fox News on Tuesday night, adding that he was “thankful” for the Biden administration’s assistance. “The administration wants to help,” he said. “They realize this is a really significant storm.”
Intercepted Phone Call To Ponder
From The New York Times.
A Russian solider, Sergey, to his girlfriend.
“We detained them, undressed them and checked all their clothes.Then a decision had to be made whether to let them go. If we let them go, they could give away our position….So it was decided to shoot them in the forest.“
Girlfriend:
“Did you shoot them?“
Sergey:
“Of course we shot them.”
Girlfriend:
“Why didn’t you take them as prisoners?“
Sergey:
“We would have had to feed them, and we don’t have enough food ourselves, you see.”
Pressing Pause 