the earlier the better
everywhere
Joined September 2016
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sithric retweeted
You won’t believe that what led to this tweet was me saying that you can criticise Islam without branding all Muslims as terrorists and that you cannot form a reasonable coalition or a formidable opposition with any group while being bigoted towards them. It’s so over. 😅
sithric retweeted
According to the logic of Ezra Klein, Matt Yglesias and other centrists the purpose of the Democratic Party is to win Blue legislative seats by 12 points instead of 10, not to make the country a better place.
sithric retweeted
Whenever Kemi Badenoch, Suella Braverman etc. talk about the British Empire, it is with full-throated praise, no room for nuance, "the British Empire was an undiluted positive influence on Humanity".
On the contrary, a David Cameron would feel a lot more at ease to start a nuanced discussion on the British Empire.
This is a common problem with politicians from ethnic/racial minority backgrounds in Western conservative parties. They seldom feel "comfortable in their own skin" - you can feel it from a mile.
sithric retweeted
I think dems are moving towards their left base and Labour is purging the left within it.
sithric retweeted
The Bank of England has raised interest rates to 4%, supposedly to tackle inflation.
There is just one problem with this decision. The Bank knows that much of the inflation we are suffering is being driven by rising oil and energy prices, largely resulting from conflict in the Middle East.
It also knows that raising interest rates cannot reduce those prices.
So why is it doing this?
The answer is that the Bank believes it must suppress demand elsewhere in the economy to compensate for rising energy costs.
In other words, it is deliberately making mortgages more expensive, increasing business borrowing costs, discouraging investment and reducing household spending power.
And all this when people are already struggling with higher energy bills. That is problem number one.
There is, however, another problem. Higher interest rates increase costs for businesses, which can then feed through into higher prices. They can, in that case, add to inflation rather than reduce it.
The Bank is imposing economic pain to address a problem its chosen policy cannot directly solve.
That is not sound economic management. It is the consequence of an economic dogma that refuses to recognise the difference between inflation caused by excessive demand and inflation caused by supply shocks.
When will we learn?
sithric retweeted
The thing I find strangest about the Brand case is that from the moment he was exposed he knew he was done. The fake religious conversion. The embrace of MAGA. The great conspiracy theories. They were his last desperate defence. And there are still people on the Right falling for his bullshit.
sithric retweeted
You fool, are you not the same stupid person that called the Pope a Democrat?
The Pope is not even Christian enough for you, but you are out here talking about progressives and feminists.
Mumu.
“They didn’t kill him for his religion”
I bet the data shows southern Christian Nigerians lynch far more people than Muslims do. Islam cannot be the only source of evil to be outraged about. It’s just too convenient.
sithric retweeted
Trying to use feminism or atheism as a cover to recruit me into your empty, purposeless bigotry will not — and never — work because we do not operate from the same level of empathy, logic, or nuance. My criticism of Islamism is institutional, not essentialist. The same applies to my criticism of any other (religious) system. It’s why some of you can claim to hate Iranian leadership because of its position on women’s rights, yet celebrate or look away when the US rains bombs on scores of schoolgirls. You are so blinded by hate that you don’t see those girls as human beings anymore because, ultimately, you want all Muslims dead. I am not like you. I am not one of you. Go to hell.
a basic distinction that many are unable or willing to grasp. when the trendy atheism of those days embraced Trump is when I knew I had to get off that train.
sithric retweeted
Bank of England logic: clearly this is a problem of too much money in the economy — look at what these fools are prepared to pay for butter!
sithric retweeted
First day of WOKE 3!!!
California city makes history allowing throuples, foursomes to legally register as partners trib.al/injZnvo
Except the Iran War was not a random idea Trump came up with, like Tariffs for example. That war has been the cornerstone of conservative foreign policy for decades. Obama was supposedly a traitor for making a deal instead. Now it’s gone so bad the VP is tweeting like a pundit. But this is what your whole mission was ever about.
One of the things the data analysts on our side obsessed over was "composition"—whether the electorate looked close enough to 2024 for Republicans to win. And despite polls that showed a Democrat blowout, the data kept on telling us the same story: in some states turnout was merely OK, in other states it was downright amazing, and in no state was it catastrophic. There was a genuine sense of optimism on our team: our people were showing up.
So, I asked the smartest data guy I know, does that mean we're going to shock the world? "No," he told me. "We might do better than the polls suggest. But the data is telling us that a lot of Trump/Vance 2024 voters are pissed and planning to vote for the other guys. Our voters are turning out, but they may not vote for us."
Well, that looks prophetic now. Our voters did show up. In Florida, for example, the electorate was 9 points more Republican than Democrat, just a couple points worse than 2024. Undoubtedly there were places we could have done better on turnout. But the main problem is not turnout. The main problem is that many people who voted for Trump/Vance in 2024 voted for Democrats in 2026.
There will be a lot of infighting and arguing over what happened and why that is. One of the pollsters I really respect told me that our economic messaging wasn’t sharp enough down the stretch. I’m sure that’s true.
But the real reason we lost is obvious to almost everyone.
Another pollster—one of the smartest people I know in politics, told me yesterday we’d lose the generic ballot by 13 points. I felt negative going into Tuesday, but even I was shocked by this. In his polling, he saw that a lot of Trump 2024 voters were angry and planning to vote for Democrats. He asked those voters who had abandoned us what would cause them to come back on our team. The top four answers, accounting for nearly all of the responses were:
1) End the war
2) Focus on cost of living/inflation
3) Put America First
4) Change our relationship to Israel
Our voters showed up. And the above four reasons are why many of them voted for Democrats. This is according to a pollster who nailed the results. While many spent Monday attacking Rachel Campos Duffy for calling for a diplomatic resolution to the conflict, it turns out her political advice was sound. (She’s also a great person.)
In the next few months, there's going to be a lot of gaslighting. Expect to hear any number of establishment politicians say the solution to our woes is amnesty. I'm open to the idea that we should change enforcement—by focusing more on businesses that hire illegal labor, for instance. But anyone pushing amnesty is lying to you.
The reason we lost is the war. The president himself said so last night.
If you'd like to argue it was worth it, that losing the Senate for the next 6 years was worth it, then do so. Argue it was a worthwhile cost to pay. Agree or disagree, that's at least honest.
But everyone knows why we lost. And any honest conversation about where we go from here must start there.
I remain hopeful about our country. To the people who are pissed off and want to say, “I told you so”: you’re right, you did tell us so. Take that energy into electing Republicans who share your worldview. To the people who are just pissed at the results, you should be. Let’s take that anger and get back to the work of saving our country.