Carriage Driver, ex-Cop, ex-Scientist, yeah it's a weird resume. Newport, RI, the best little city in the best little state.
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I loved Tours. Just as historic as Paris, much cheaper, and the people seemed genuinely happy to see foreigners. I think places like Paris and Venice just get loved to death and the locals start to get grumpy. Plenty of great spots in Europe that hardly anybody visits.
Was this in Paris? In smaller French cities people are much friendlier to foreigners, and (conversely) much less likely to speak English.
From a distance, it looks like Labour had a huge victory over the Conservatives and is using it's new found power to continue the policies the Conservatives just got thrown out for. It should be a golden opportunity for a smaller left wing party. No?
Trump is 79 and not healthy. At some point his deterioration will speed up. That is just the way it works, for all of us. How you reject Biden on health grounds and then vote for Trump is beyond me.
It is really hard to be bullish about Vegas. It has always been cyclical, and boy oh boy, look at where we are in the cycle. We are telling foreigners to fuck off. Gambling has always been the foundation of Vegas, and that market is way oversaturated.
Louisiana has the highest incarceration rate in the country. More than four times the rate of Massachusetts.
Entirely possible.
Yes. The whole MAGA argument is that once the voters elect their guy, he is King. Checks and balances only apply to Democrats.
Even if he didn’t have heroin pumping in his veins, or drink contaminated raw milk, or have a suicidal worm in his brain, or feed on road kill, I wouldn’t take health advice from a guy who regularly basks under a toaster-broiler for skin care.
Yes, when push comes to shove, it appears that Republicans in Congress and the Supreme Court will let Trump do anything he wants. Will this continue????
AND he is totally oblivious to the fact that everything he is currently doing, or wants to do, is going to increase inflation.
The only reason for a Sept. rate cut is to stop Trump from taking over the Fed. It won't work. Only the Supreme Court or the Grim Reaper can stop Trump from putting his henchmen in the Fed.
The government is full of dedicated professionals who take pride in their work. They are all retiring, quitting or being fired. Only grifters and clock punchers will be left. Anybody who doesn't know what the government does for them is going to find out.
Fight for wind. Fight for what’s right. Fight for Rhode Islanders. 🎥 AG Neronha with @climateactionri.org
This is very feudal. Power is based on loyalty to the King. But the King doesn't trust any of his vassals. So there is a competition of greater and greater acts of obsequiousness. I would not be surprised to see actual bowing.
Political parties are run by the people who care the most about ideology. Elections are decided by the people who don't know what an ideology is. Are things getting better or worse for those people? Mostly worse. So the party in power is in trouble.
Every accusation is an admission.
The statistics pretty flimsy. If Jews (students or otherwise) are really leaving the northeast because of antisemitism, they are in for a rude awakening.
Proof that there are people who very literally have more money then they know what to do with. And we are ballooning the deficit so they can have more.
W never would have beat Bill Clinton or Obama, but he didn't have to. Dems put up Gore and Kerry. Two of the best qualified and least entertaining candidates you could imagine.
Yes. Most left leaning political types would like to believe that voters make rational decisions based on informed self interest. Clearly, that is not the case. Politics is entertainment. What do Obama and Trump have in common? They love a crowd, and the crowd loves them.
Most Dem leaders, strategists, etc. think this stuff is stupid. But, we live in a stupid world.
Yes. I am convinced that reason and facts will win out over superstition and ignorance, in the long term. In my country, in my lifetime, I'm a little shaky on that.
Laying it on a little thick there.
Here is the problem. Most right wingers view the left as a solid block that follows their most outspoken leaders without question. Most left wingers view the right as a loose collection of individuals who make choices based on their own self interests and views. We are both wrong.
'anti-anti-woke', I like it. I don't use the term 'BIPOC' and it takes me a minute to remember what it means when other people do. Yet, I know that people who pretend to be offended by it are disingenuous shits.
This is one more example of the fact that Trump is simply about Trump. You can be a lifelong conservative and stalwart of the Republican Party and Trump could care less. I don't know how so many Republican politicians have failed to grasp this simple fact.
I am not at all surprised by what Trump is doing. I am shocked at how many people continue to support him, or at least look the other way.
Yes. From FDR to Carter, the assumption was that the government should try to make things better. How to do that was hotly debated. But starting with Reagan, the debate is whether or not the government should even try. Now we are back to Hooverism, but actually more corrupt with Trump.
Gloomy stuff.
One of the most consistent human biases is the assumption that other people think and behave like we do. Crooks, more often than not, believe everyone is a crook.
Hoarding is a bizarre mental illness. Animal hoarding is even harder to fathom.
We are past the tipping point on renewables. In 20 years fossil fuels will be limited to specialty markets.
Some comment here are suggesting Europe doesn't have the resources to become a major military power. They won't catch up to the US anytime soon, but they don't have to. They only have to be stronger than Russia, which arguably they already are. It is not the Soviet Union of old.
One good thing about Trump, his coattails are non-existent. Do you know what Rex Tillerson or Mike Pompeo are doing now? Me neither.
When the President doesn't believe in 'intelligence' it does seem like there is room for savings.
Am I understanding this correctly? Jeffrey Epstein’s best friend wants to eliminate mail-in voting because an enemy of the United States and a violent dictator who is on his own fifth Presidential term is for some reason very invested in American elections
Yes. When you get into the details it's pretty nauseating. I still can't get past the fact that it was not uncommon for men to sell their own children. Not out of desperation, but from greed and a refusal to recognize their own flesh and blood.
To get down to basics, people are a result of their genetics and their environment. How we behave is mostly copied from our observations of how others behave, towards us and others.
There is a wealth of science on this topic. Here is a pretty good overview: icjia.illinois.gov/researchhub/...
Don't know why I am compulsively replying to you. But, no, I do not think, nor did I say, anything of the sort.
Why, oh why, do I ever interact with anonymous accounts online.
One nice thing about Bluesky. It reminds me that there are liberal assholes too.
How about we recognize they are victims and hold them accountable. Most people who do bad things have had bad things done to them. That is how they learned it.
It wouldn't work if the target audience wasn't receptive. But I put most of the blame on the greedy few. They organize it and benefit from it. Were the poor white farmers who killed and died defending slavery bad people? In my view, yes, but a pathetic kind of bad.
Trump is a grifter pretending to be a businessman. He doesn't know, or care to know, anything about actual business. By the end of his term, the economy will be a shambles.
I would put it slightly differently. The foundational assumption of MAGA is that we live in a zero sum world. So, for them, hating others and loving yourself are the same thing.
It is story of the American right from the beginning. The wealthy using bigotry to divide the working class.
There is no indication that Putin wants peace. But even if he did, it gets harder for him to compromise and stay in power the longer the war goes on. It looks like we will have a stalemate until Putin is gone.
As far as I can tell, American Conservatism is, and has always been, greed and bigotry. Everything else is just window dressing. I know there are some people who actually believe in fiscal responsibility, family values, states rights, yada yada, but they are a tiny minority.
Higher population states lean Blue. Therefore, if both sides gerrymander as much as they can, it will tend to favor Dems. One of the foundational assumptions of MAGA is that the opposition will continue to abide by the norms that they are destroying. I don't think that is a good assumption.
They peaked when they ruled the junior high lunch room, so it is not surprising they want to go back.
Politicians are increasingly competing with each other to see who can piss off Orange Mussolini the most. Love it.
Gavin Newsom may have found his moment.
Today In Newport History: August 17, 1790 – George Washington Arrives In Newport
Liking Gavin more and more.
Newsom: If California, one of the most un-Trumped states in America, is not successful, it’s at our peril. We may not get this back. I’m telling you, we may not. He is rigging this next midterm election before one vote is cast. He tried to wreck our democracy after the last vote was cast last time.
I understand why the markets go down when rates are cut. Why do they go UP in anticipation of rate cuts??
MAGAts don't go to blue cities (except for treason). Which explains why they might believe this crap. But why do they care?
Who will never ever be named.
Starbase Named Best City To Start Family With Boss
It is a unique and confusing situation. But it's all bad, it's just a question of what flavor and intensity of bad are we going to get and when. I don't see any reason for the optimism that seems to be prevalent in the markets, except the 'greater fool theory'.
I think this is one of the most universally misunderstood things about crime. Most crime, and almost all violent crime, is between people who know each other, usually very well. Despite what you see on the news, stranger violent crime is almost negligible.
The problem with bubbles, there is no way to know how high they will go or when they will pop. I'm very surprised it has gotten this far.
Reality is woke propaganda. Linear time is part of reality.
BLS statistics are going to be total fiction in a few months to a year.
My theory is Trump is obsessed with getting the Nobel Peace Prize, because Obama got one. He does not know, or want to know, anything about the war in Ukraine. He will simply try to bully Putin and Zelenskyy into making a peace deal, any peace deal. It is far from the worst thing he has done.
Why do stocks always go up in anticipation of Fed cuts, when rate cuts are usually followed by a bear market???
It is much more difficult to compare 'cost of living' than most people suppose. Often when one expense is driven down, another is driven up and income tends to corelate with cost of living. Also, do you count the amount of time it takes you to commute or run errands?
Beat me to it.
There are two evergreen issues for the GOP. Crime and fiscal responsibility. Well, they have just blown the budget deficit to the Moon. So, expect to hear allot about crime. Even if they have to hire people to mug suburban white voters.
Excellent point. I don't think it is overly simplistic to say that this war will continue (perhaps as more and more of a stalemate) until Putin is out of power. Then, Ukraine will win. Maybe with some sort of fig leaf for Putin's replacement, maybe not.
I would like to point out it is a 'ballistic vest'. It is designed and certified to stop bullets. There is no way to know what protection it provides against sandwiches or other food items, if any. The guy could be suffering from fourth degree spicy mustard burns for all you know.
A white terrorist, by the name of Patrick Joseph White, 30, of Kennesaw, GA, fired over 180 rounds at the CDC over COVID-19 vaccine paranoia, killing Officer David Rose, 33—a former U.S. Marine and recent police academy graduate. At the same time, he responded to the active shooter.
Bessent isn't stupid, but he is dishonest. Based on that, I don't think he actually wants the Fed to slash rates and send inflation soaring. He does want to blame the Fed for the job market going to shit.
This is illegal, bad policy and, even judged by MAGA goals, stupid. Foreign nationals will simply stop showing up for anything. It will become harder and harder for ICE to make apprehensions as the immigrant community comes to the realization that they are all in the same boat.
As is often the case in MAGAworld, gross incompetence does give a certain amount of cover for malicious intent.
If Trump lives to the end of this term, US government data collection on EVERYTHING will be wrecked. Trump does not BELEIVE in unbiased data as a concept. In his world, everything is pro-Trump or anti-Trump, there is no neutral or unbiased anything.
DC statehood is now an imperative. No more dicking around. Next Dem majority, get it done immediately.
So, where are the Epstein Files?
Right wingers LOVE sending their children rampaging through the wilderness on ATVs. Which I find very annoying, by the way. The KEY FACT that this twit and his type leave unsaid, but they all universally understand, is that these annoying children are NOT WHITE. NOT WHITE = CRIMINAL
I am convinced that Musk's true goal is to test the limits of American gullibility.
These are statistics from people who know they may be fired for reporting bad news. I think it is safe to assume that these are the best numbers they could report without ruining their professional reputations.
CNN might want to mention that the head of this agency was just fired for reporting worse than expected jobs numbers. Factoring that in, these numbers are pretty bad.
The deep south always has the highest crime rates.
Corrupt politicians are not new. We have even had a few corrupt Presidents. The difference is, Trump is a professional criminal. Being President is his side-hustle.
I was very moved by my conversation with @elizabeth-warren.bsky.social...
The CEO of a a multi-trillion dollar company went to the White House, openly handed the US president a gift made of gold, and his company got a special exemption to tariffs the president has illegally imposed. Also, the Founders took bribery so seriously the Constitution bans it 3 separate times.
We are fortunate that the psychopaths running our country are also incompetent. If Trump was an evil genius, we would be screwed.
This is terrible, but there are two reasons it is not bigger news: 1. It is not the most terrible thing this administration is doing, maybe not in the top ten. 2. It is totally predictable. Patel was put in the job solely for this purpose. He has NO qualifications besides loyalty.
Conservatives want to keep things the way they are, or maybe go back to the way they imagine things used to be. That is a simple message. Liberals want to make things better. But which things, and how? It is a messaging disaster, always will be.
Is there an example of a prominent American conservative who didn't promptly abandon their supposed core values when it suited them? Seriously, is there?
True. But part of a much bigger problem. It has become commonly accepted that streets and roads are the preserve of motor vehicles, unless posted otherwise. I remember when the reverse was true.
This is terrible, but it is also stupid. People will simply stop showing up at their court dates.
I'm not sure if I totally agree, but certainly worth considering. The Cold War was also unique. A worldwide conflict between two superpowers that resulted in relatively little bloodshed, by historical standards.
Exports to the US account for about 2% of India's GDP. How much will Modi be willing to bow to Trump to protect that?
They are giving Hassett WAY too much credit. Yes, he is quite smart, and well educated too. But, he is FAR from a mild mannered bureaucrat. He has made his whole career selling economic snake oil. Much like Trump pretends to be a businessman, Hassett pretends to be a policy wonk.
There is very little the Fed can do. Unemployment AND inflation are both going to go up. They have some influence on which goes up faster. That's about it.
Either the landlord is misreading the market and the shop will sit vacant until they reduce the rent. Or, your bagel shop is misreading the market and they will be replaced by a place that charges $20 for a bagel, or similar. Honestly, I am always astounded at what people will pay for convenience.
