AshLael
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User ID: 2498
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
1d ago
To the extent Democrats would say "yes, this is in fact what we want", that makes the ad more effective, not less.
I would call the ad "obvious" more than "powerful" but yes you absolutely should hang all your opponent's most extreme positions around their neck and tell all the middle of the road people what an extremist they are. It's politics 101.
AshLael
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2d ago
He was absolutely guilty of the crime he was convicted of though. It's a harsh law but it wasn't wrongly applied.
I'm interpreting the vision differently to you. Up until 10:38 we're in agreement: The pot is on the counter, she's crouched down on the floor, the cops have their guns on her, and they're screaming at her to "drop the fucking pot" which she doesn't have.
Then she half-stands up again and appears to be reaching for the pot, and at that point the cop shoots her. I don't see anything that looks like her hoisting the pot over her head.
The pot spills and steam comes up from the water on the floor. I can't see where the pot ends up but I don't see it on the chair.
My interpretation of the video is that these guys with guns repeatedly screaming at her to "drop the fucking pot" when she didn't have it made her reach for it so she could do what they said? Or something?
Edit: Never mind, other camera angle with slow mo does show her throwing the pot and it ending up on the chair.
I still put the blame on the cop in this scenario. I can understand why her throwing the pot would make him pull the trigger, but ultimately this was not a tense or dangerous situation at all until he started threatening to shoot her in the face out of nowhere, and she did not act with lethal force.
AshLael
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4d ago
He phoned in to a Harris speech. That's probably what cae heard.
AshLael
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4d ago
Of course, I've read this whole thread and still am picturing Harris in a generic almost-black dark grey suit, in spite of the subject matter. My visual imagination can be stubborn.
It's not a bad thing to assume. She's in blue in that particular video but usually wears more muted colours.
AshLael
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4d ago
Apparently it's a meeting of disability activists, some of whom are blind. Others may have other disabilities, or no disability at all.
AshLael
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4d ago
Exactly this. Most people want to be treated like they're normal, not like they're special. Yeah sometimes a particular thing becomes an obstacle and you have to work around that as best you can, but disabled people don't usually want everyone constantly acknowledging that they're disabled, immigrants don't like being perpetually reminded they're immigrants, etc, etc. It's actually the opposite of inclusive to constantly orient your language and behaviour around the thing that is different about someone.
What all these language and behaviour rules actually are is a modern form of elite etiquette. Whereas once upon a time you might have needed to demonstrate that you knew the right fork to use or how to curtsey the right way, now you need to show that you know the proper modes of address in different situations. It's not for the the actual blind/trans/whatever people, it's for the cultural class you're showing you are properly a member of.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
4d ago
Have you ever talked to a person on the telephone?
Do you open by telling them what you're wearing so they can imagine you in their minds?
AshLael
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4d ago
That everyone else was doing it doesn't make it not weird either. Blind people don't need to know what colour suit you're wearing. When I listen to the radio or to a podcast I can't see the speakers either, and not once have I thought "gee I really wish this person would tell me their pronouns and what they're wearing".
Introduce yourself by name, fair enough. Everything else is unnecessary and if you're participating in some nutty subculture that likes to pretend that this nonsense is somehow supportive of disabled people, that itself is a reflection on you.
It's a video of Harris saying "I am Kamala Harris, my pronouns are she and her, and I am a woman sitting at the table wearing a blue suit."
Various responses are saying that she's talking to blind people, as if that somehow makes it not weird.
AshLael
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5d ago
They could even give him a binder full of women to pick from for VP!
AshLael
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5d ago
TBF, Manchin would be one of the strongest nominees the Dems could field. But there's no way he gets it.
AshLael
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5d ago
Damn, I called this one wrong. I was convinced he wouldn't drop out until there was a declared candidate against him.
It's really weird that this happened by letter posted to twitter rather than an appearance in front of cameras. Almost makes you wonder if something happened e.g. the Covid got him harder than we all expected.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
5d ago
I'm pretty firmly of the opinion that there is a sharply diminishing marginal effect in terms of electoral outcomes, and the practical impact gets maxed out quickly. It's easy to point out examples where massive spending achieved approximately nothing (Michael Bloomberg, Carrick Flynn, etc).
But even so, there can still be a corruptive effect if politicians believe that money buys elections, and most of them do.
AshLael
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7d ago
Legal immigration and naturalization are also things that happen.
AshLael
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7d ago
Ehhhh, Jew-hate was pretty central. It wasn't everything but it was a lot. It's underplaying it to say "they were just an obstacle to the real goal" when the real goal was racial supremacy.
AshLael
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7d ago
Population keeps increasing. It would not be at all surprising if the election winner got the most votes in history.
AshLael
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7d ago
The virulent anti-semitism was a major and defining aspect of Nazism, true. But there were other significant and distinctive aspects of their ideology such that I think it can be meaningful to describe someone as Nazi-without-the-Jew-killing. I don't think that label describes Trump well though. For instance:
- Nazism considered military struggle and conflict a natural and desirable part of human existence. While I'm cynical about the "no wars" rhetoric we get from Trump and his ilk, he's certainly far less dedicated to war for its own sake.
- Nazi ideology famously supported killing the disabled and infirm. Trump obviously has suggested nothing like this.
- Trump is much more individualist than the Nazis. Their collectivism was not compassionate, but it was a collectivist ideology nonetheless.
Trump has many flaws, but he ain't a Nazi.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
8d ago
I reckon she'd have a decent shot if she went all in on a law-and-order message. That's pretty much her background but in 2020 Democrats were not keen to say things like "crime is bad" and that made her pretty rudderless.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
8d ago
I have no interest in talk of "sides". You have no evidence that this lady specifically was in any way involved in any of those events. She is not an avatar of leftism, she's not an organizer of online mobs, she's just some cashier at home depot. Punishing her for what some people she doesn't know did to someone else she doesn't know is grotesque.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
8d ago
While this is obviously a very different system and situation to the kinds of leadership challenges that happen fairly often in parliamentary systems, I'll make a few observations about what tends to happen in my experience.
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The under-siege leader gets increasingly defiant and intransigent. Even when their position is obviously mortally wounded, they will desperately hang on and try to fight off the people coming for them. For example when Tony Abbott faced an empty-chair spill (no alternative candidate, just a motion to kick him out) that got 39% support, most observers recognised that there was no coming back from that. Abbott himself though clung on for another 7 months until finally being blasted out by Turnbull. Similarly, when the knives came out for Turnbull he made plans to call an early election before his internal party foes could get the numbers to take him down, and was stopped only by the Attorney General threatening to resign. Gillard endured two unsuccessful attempts over an extended period before Rudd finally took her down. Leaders can and will stay through wall to wall media coverage saying "X is GONE" for months on end.
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The media narrative runs way ahead of the actual deciders. The news is frothy and excitable. Agitators use the media to build momentum and exaggerate their numbers. The people who actually need to gank the leader are much more slow to take that step. It absolutely can happen but it's a big deal and people have personal loyalties that are not so easily discarded. By the time it actually happens it usually has felt completely obvious and inevitable to everyone on the outside for some time. (Gillard's sudden and swift assassination of Rudd being an obvious exception).
Now we have party bigwigs openly calling on Biden to go, this is getting serious. But I'm still looking for a few more steps in escalation before I think Biden is likely to consider folding, such as a party leader (like Schumer or Pelosi or Obama) publicly calling on delegates pledged to Biden to abandon him, or an alternative candidate announcing they will try to win the nomination at the convention. If it gets to the point where Biden recognises he's going to lose regardless, he might back out then rather than forcing the issue.
AshLael
Just here to farm downvotes
8d ago
Yeah, you could maybe make a case for Kohli somewhere on the list, but he's not the kind of standout that a Warne or a Tendulkar were and of course no one holds a candle to Bradman.
I don't think that means it "works". It's very typical that it's relatively easy to convince your own committed partisans to embrace a particular framing and to get them to repeat it. But that has little bearing on how appealing or convincing it is to people who aren't already rusted on.
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