I think the reason why Democratic politicians have so much trouble articulating their vision is that their voters will call them out on blatant lies, so their positions need to have some logical consistency, or else those politicians will not win their support.

Republicans are not so encumbered. I think their base enjoys being lied to.

The Democratic Party resembles the horse, or at least part of it.

1. Burn it all down
2. ???
3. Profit

There is another point, at least for Americans. While I know a few people who have emigrated to the US and still maintain ties with their original homeland, I know others who have intentionally given up their privileges back home. While they may still be citizens of their home country, they owe them no obligations.

The US is different, they tax your income no matter where in the world you make it. if you are living in a country with a tax treaty in the US, you can fully deduct all foreign tax payments so you will likely end up owing nothing to the US. But you still have to file. And in return for that you retain the right to vote from the state you last resided in. Furthermore, it is quite hard to give up your US citizenship. It can be very costly, because we will make you pay taxes on assets as if you sold them before they let you leave, including any retirement funds.

Americans living abroad are much more likely to still consider themselves Americans first, because we remind them about it every April 15th.

For those not paying attention, this race has already been settled and is still part of the 47 Senate seats that most major media report Democrats hold. The only seat that is technically not settled yet is in PA, where the Republican is ahead, but couldn’t clear the .5% margin needed to avoid a mandatory recount.

But it is extremely unlikely that a recount would find enough votes that weren’t counted in the first place to matter, and most media counts that seat as Republican now, leading to the final 53-47 count. Chuck has even invited the Republican to things for new Senators, even though his victory is still not technically final.

Right, I think without the Open Internet, we would still be getting fast broadband, but likely tied to your Cable or Telco provider’s network, and things that are currently websites would have to arrange for a presence on each network they want to do business on. And they would probably meter access, just like they do with your electric bill, or your cable company does with a basic tier but then paid access to anything important.

Hey it’s not just a meme, it’s DeCeNtRaliZeD fInAnCe. I bought some DOGE as a joke several years ago, now it is worth real money. I sold some the last time it was at $0.69, because of course I did.

I have some left, the price is currently $0.36 but maybe Elon can meme it up to $4.20 and I can retire early.

It still works that way, until the rules change. Republicans have the votes to change how Congress works, if they act in unison. But they will have just a slim a margin as last time, and they had trouble electing a Speaker. Even in the next Congress, they needed a secret vote to elect the Senate Majority Leader because they didn’t want any receipts on who voted for whom to make it back to Dear Leader.

It is possible that the Republican Party turns into a oroboros of spite, eating itself from within because of perceived grievances. That might be the best possible outcome we can hope for.

I think we need to differentiate a bit between “no Internet” and “no open Internet”. I have just enough grey hair and health problems to remember what life was like before the Internet really took off: you dialed into your ISP, like Compuserve or AOL, over a land line, and were charged per minute. And those services couldn’t really talk to each other. But back then, computers also ran at 10 MHz and couldn’t fit in your pocket.

So there was even connectivity back then, it was just very limited and each ISP had to provide it’s own information, because they didn’t really talk to each other. The same technological advancements would have happened over the last 50 years. Computers and networking would have gotten faster, cell networks would evolve to handle data and be more efficient, and broadband access to everyone’s home and office would have happened. But if the Internet didn’t happen in the open way it did, with an emphasis on open standards, its entirely possible each major media company would have had its own network to subscribe to, and it would be a lot more expensive.

But would that really be bad? Would social media really have eaten our brains if we paid for it per minute?

There was, when the ruling first came down. Responsible journalists tend to operate on events, with facts that can be verified. When the ruling happened, there were a lot of “Here’s what this means” articles, talking in the abstract about things that haven’t happened yet. They only got published because they were timely because of the ruling.

Now, we have no actual information that this guy is gonna grift “gratuitues” out of his position, other than he’s a Trump insider and that’s what they do. But responsible outlets won’t report on it unless there is clear evidence.

Now if we find out there are facts backing up the idea, these responsible journalists have already done a lot of the legwork, so they just add the new facts and can publish something timely again.

He’s gonna defend women, whether they like it or not

The cash is in the favors you can do for people, now that the Supreme Court has ruled that bribes gratuities are perfectly legal. It’s no accident that Trump now wants to remove taxes on “tips”. As of right now, if you “tip” your Deputy AG to fix a case for you, it needs to be reported to the IRS. If there are no taxes on “tips”, they are not reportable to anyone, and no pesky reporter can report your “tip” income.

I think it’s because there is a difference between the Budget and Appropriations in Congress. The budget is a plan, where programs are authorized and an overall budget is set. The appropriations process is what assigns particular dollars to particular discretionary programs. (Certain programs deemed “mandatory” by Congress, like Social Security, Medicare, and interest on the debt, get allocated money automatically and are not involved in appropriations)

If I had to guess, I would say that once a program is authorized once under a budget, it can continue as long as it (or the Federal department it is part of) is not specifically de-authorized, and as long as it continues to receive appropriations specifically for that program.

So, it is likely that this is all about Ramaswamy’s total ignorance of how Congress works. Which tracks pretty well with what this DOGE is all about.

Today’s Republican Party didn’t get into their position of awesome power by listening to experts…

Ah. I wasn’t aware of that. It still sucks, but maybe for the folks who are left and still protected by the union some malicious compliance is in order.

it’s comically hard to be fired unless you’re a political appointee.

Didn’t they change the rules to count many more jobs as political appointees without protections right at the end of Trump’s term, only to have Biden change it back? Trump is definitely doing that again.

These companies are huge, and know how to lobby the government. It seems to be the wrong industry to piss off.

A judge has a better chance of doing that and being somewhat protected from the wrath of Trump’s vindictive government.

Alternatively, he could find a judge willing to publish every single one, unredacted.

The 14th amendment approach did have some legitimate issues with it. If it worked, then I am convinced Abbott would have invoked some bullshit “Biden is creating an invasion at the border” excuse to remove Biden from the ballot. That’s why the decision ended up unanimous.

The 22nd amendment’s text is a whole lot clearer, and far less subject to interpretation. I can see a State saying “I don’t even need the Supreme Court to weigh in on this one”. And if it does come up with some tortured logic, I can see a State telling it to go to hell, because the one thing it can’t focus do is rewrite the Constitution.