I took wj to be describing his understanding of a rather specific academic approach to a subject rather than telling everyone how to think about it. There are, I would imagine, reasons why that particular approach is preferred - guardrails that don't necessarily apply outside the discipline because the goals are often different. At least that's my distillation of some of the comments.
I'm generally a casual sports fan but with specific points of greater interest (professional home teams and, to a lesser degree, my alma mater's teams). I like watching games and digging into stats. I'm not interested in the goings-on behind the scenes other than things like how long a given sufficiently valuable player might be out for an injury - things that directly bear on what happens on the field.
The sport I most enjoyed watching without ever having seen it before (probably hadn't even heard of it) was hurling while on vacation in Ireland. It was at the time of the 2001 all-Ireland semifinals. It was instantly compelling in a way no other new sport has been for me.
Yet I still haven't watched it since. I should look into it again.
Utopianism for a Dying Planet sound interesting to me. We've had a few conversations here over the years about an economy that wasn't based on the pursuit of growth - increasing production and consumption.
Too much of what's for sale is based on an illusion of increased happiness (a word I'm using to cover many positive things like satisfaction, peace of mind, self-esteem, good health, etc.). Much of it is actively damaging to the consumer. (Is Meta good for kids? Does online gambling improve people's lives? Tobacco? Fast food? Tanning booths? I could go on, but I think you get the idea.)
We're burning the world to run on a pointless treadmill.
You can tell the same lie a thousand times but it never gets any more true. But does it convince more people?
I wonder what percentage of the population is more persuaded by the lie's retelling versus the percentage that has grown weary of it (if they ever believed it). Also, in either case, what they can and are willing to do about it.
What will we be talking about a year from now? I'm an aspiring loin-girder.
Oh, so do I. It's just something that wasn't mentioned at nous's link. And it's a double dose of it. Once at the state level and again nationally. If not for the EC, it would just be at the national level by popular vote.
(At least the guy who came in 2nd back in the day got to be VP.)
I have to think the electoral college has something to do with the US having the most pure two-party system. The fact that states' EC votes are, with very few exceptions, all given to whoever wins at the state level, by whatever margin, rather than apportioned, pushes us towards two-party dominance. That's on top of our president being publicly elected in the first place rather than determined by which party controls congress.
Presidents are the nominal (or de facto) leaders of their political parties. If presidents are elected in a way that leads to only two major parties, it's going to flow into the rest of our political systems at all levels. It makes additional parties all the more pointless.
I would love to have the problem of being torn over which party's candidates to vote for in general elections. As it stands, it's only a matter of whether I'm really voting for someone (D) or if I'm merely voting against their opponent (R).
I think the question is whether you can imagine a political party, be it an existing party that changes its platform or a new party, that largely reflects your views and is, at least in theory, viable from the standpoint of prevailing public opinion.
Are there enough people who agree with you on enough things to provide sufficient support for a political party that reflects your views and values to a sufficient (for you) degree?
I don't know the answer, but I don't think the question is one about a party that's your perfect match.
I won't read this article or provide a link. I only provide the text below for amusement at the pretzel logic applied to the tRump slush-fund settlement.
The Hill
Trump chose transparency instead of a payout — and his critics hate it
Yesterday
Opinion
By Tom Fitton
Google preview text of the wikipedia entry on the author:
Thomas J. Fitton is an American conservative activist and the president of Judicial Watch. Fitton is a senior member of the Council for National Policy, a conservative umbrella organization for groups such as Judicial Watch.
I think I can imagine at least the generalities of the slop without reading it.
I might have mentioned at the time that a college roommate I had lost touch with about 30 years ago re-entered my life back in the fall. Unfortunately, it was because he was dying from what started as bladder cancer and that had metastasized in various parts of his body.
I got to see him three times over a month or so before he passed. Our little circle of close friends locked back in immediately.
My wife had spent significant time with everyone but him. But she felt like she had known him for years after a short time. It might have helped that the rest of us had told her stories about him over the years - and that he was extremely charismatic.
I think about him a lot and am kind of mad at the world over his death. You can't make old friends, indeed.
Net approval: -20.6%
Approval: 38%
Disapproval: 58.6%
It seemed for a while, just based on my checking the numbers fairly regularly, that 40% approval and -15% net approval were floors that tRump would never go under. Not anymore, particularly as concerns net approval.
But the leak actually happened in 2019, during Trump’s first term in office, and Littlejohn was prosecuted by Biden’s Justice Department. The Times used the information to produce a blockbuster report in September 2020 showing Trump frequently paid little or nothing in taxes. Littlejohn also leaked tax records of numerous other prominent wealthy people, including Elon Musk, Jeff Bezos and Michael Bloomberg, to ProPublica.
Experts noted Trump’s suit over the leak was never likely to succeed, in part because he missed the two-year statute of limitations to file a civil suit over the unauthorized disclosure of tax information. And there were major questions about whether there was a legitimate dispute for a court to referee since Trump was effectively both plaintiff and defendant. Trump pulled the suit in favor of the settlement shortly before a judge could weigh in.
The leak under tRump and the prosecution of the leaker under Biden - resulting in a 5-year prison sentence, mind you. How this results in a fund to compensate people prosecuted under Biden is a logical mystery. Biden prosecuted the guy who harmed tRump so tRump gets to hand out money to people Biden prosecuted.
Bad as this is, and it is horrible, I don’t think it’s the worst part of the “settlement.”
Sure, but the slush fund was already known, at least to me, before the tax-audit immunity. So, bad as it was with just the slush fund, it's even worse when you add the tax-audit immunity on top of it.
Now that others have weighed in on their experience with the artists they know, I'd note that wj took "solidly middle class" as some kind of tell. What I meant was that my artist friends are far from "elite." They live in modest homes in small towns - old small towns with old modest homes. Cool older homes because they made them that way with their talents, but homes that aren't close to selling for seven figures.
So artists? - yes. Coastal? - yes. Cosmopolitan? - well, close to a large city, but in a small town, so whatever that means to you. Educated - varies, but few, if any, advanced degrees from private schools. Monied - no, unless being somewhere in the middle of middle class, which is what I meant by "solidly middle class," is a marker of being elite.
Some have other jobs (or spouses with regular jobs). One friend's other job is teaching kids art at an art school. He used to teach at a Montessori school before that. And other things before that. Another friend dog sits, as she did for us when we went on a vacation a couple years ago. She likes to paint dog portraits, among other things.
But if you define it as sufficiently financially secure as to not be especially risk-averse, it’s a much better fit.
Many of my more liberal friends are solidly middle-class hippy-ish artists. I wouldn't even go so far as "sufficiently financially secure as to not be especially risk-averse."
The addendum, signed by Todd Blanche, the acting attorney general, says the government is “forever barred” and “precluded” from examining the tax returns of Trump, his family, company and “related companies”.
I'm not sure the "forever" authority exists, but either way ... wow. It was bad enough already and now this.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.
On “Monkey business”
I took wj to be describing his understanding of a rather specific academic approach to a subject rather than telling everyone how to think about it. There are, I would imagine, reasons why that particular approach is preferred - guardrails that don't necessarily apply outside the discipline because the goals are often different. At least that's my distillation of some of the comments.
On “Open Thread”
It's interesting how Putin and Trump both suffer from an intolerance for bad news that results in their making bad decisions.
"
I didn't even know that feminism was much of a thing among general contractors.
On “Sports fandom”
I'm generally a casual sports fan but with specific points of greater interest (professional home teams and, to a lesser degree, my alma mater's teams). I like watching games and digging into stats. I'm not interested in the goings-on behind the scenes other than things like how long a given sufficiently valuable player might be out for an injury - things that directly bear on what happens on the field.
The sport I most enjoyed watching without ever having seen it before (probably hadn't even heard of it) was hurling while on vacation in Ireland. It was at the time of the 2001 all-Ireland semifinals. It was instantly compelling in a way no other new sport has been for me.
Yet I still haven't watched it since. I should look into it again.
On “Open Thread”
Elon Musk is the world's first trillionaire.
https://apnews.com/article/musk-spacex-tesla-ipo-trillionaire-billionaire-worth-rockets-7723f82b6063a9a17c194e25982cd66d
It is a perversion wrapped in an abomination inside an absurdity.
"
Utopianism for a Dying Planet sound interesting to me. We've had a few conversations here over the years about an economy that wasn't based on the pursuit of growth - increasing production and consumption.
Too much of what's for sale is based on an illusion of increased happiness (a word I'm using to cover many positive things like satisfaction, peace of mind, self-esteem, good health, etc.). Much of it is actively damaging to the consumer. (Is Meta good for kids? Does online gambling improve people's lives? Tobacco? Fast food? Tanning booths? I could go on, but I think you get the idea.)
We're burning the world to run on a pointless treadmill.
"
You can tell the same lie a thousand times but it never gets any more true. But does it convince more people?
I wonder what percentage of the population is more persuaded by the lie's retelling versus the percentage that has grown weary of it (if they ever believed it). Also, in either case, what they can and are willing to do about it.
What will we be talking about a year from now? I'm an aspiring loin-girder.
"
This administration is a contest to be the most contemptible. It's a really strong field.
On “What’s wrong with liberalism?”
"i think that’s Duverger again..."
Oh, so do I. It's just something that wasn't mentioned at nous's link. And it's a double dose of it. Once at the state level and again nationally. If not for the EC, it would just be at the national level by popular vote.
(At least the guy who came in 2nd back in the day got to be VP.)
"
I have to think the electoral college has something to do with the US having the most pure two-party system. The fact that states' EC votes are, with very few exceptions, all given to whoever wins at the state level, by whatever margin, rather than apportioned, pushes us towards two-party dominance. That's on top of our president being publicly elected in the first place rather than determined by which party controls congress.
Presidents are the nominal (or de facto) leaders of their political parties. If presidents are elected in a way that leads to only two major parties, it's going to flow into the rest of our political systems at all levels. It makes additional parties all the more pointless.
"
I would love to have the problem of being torn over which party's candidates to vote for in general elections. As it stands, it's only a matter of whether I'm really voting for someone (D) or if I'm merely voting against their opponent (R).
"
I think the question is whether you can imagine a political party, be it an existing party that changes its platform or a new party, that largely reflects your views and is, at least in theory, viable from the standpoint of prevailing public opinion.
Are there enough people who agree with you on enough things to provide sufficient support for a political party that reflects your views and values to a sufficient (for you) degree?
I don't know the answer, but I don't think the question is one about a party that's your perfect match.
"
lj, you vacuous pervert! (Sorry. I couldn't resist the selective edit.)
"
I look forward to your Canadian perspective, wonkie. Best of luck on the move.
On “Open Thread time”
It's charlatans all the way down.
"
I won't read this article or provide a link. I only provide the text below for amusement at the pretzel logic applied to the tRump slush-fund settlement.
Google preview text of the wikipedia entry on the author:
I think I can imagine at least the generalities of the slop without reading it.
On “The quiet grief of adult friendship”
I might have mentioned at the time that a college roommate I had lost touch with about 30 years ago re-entered my life back in the fall. Unfortunately, it was because he was dying from what started as bladder cancer and that had metastasized in various parts of his body.
I got to see him three times over a month or so before he passed. Our little circle of close friends locked back in immediately.
My wife had spent significant time with everyone but him. But she felt like she had known him for years after a short time. It might have helped that the rest of us had told her stories about him over the years - and that he was extremely charismatic.
I think about him a lot and am kind of mad at the world over his death. You can't make old friends, indeed.
On “Open Thread time”
At least there's this:
https://www.natesilver.net/p/trump-approval-ratings-nate-silver-bulletin
Net approval: -20.6%
Approval: 38%
Disapproval: 58.6%
It seemed for a while, just based on my checking the numbers fairly regularly, that 40% approval and -15% net approval were floors that tRump would never go under. Not anymore, particularly as concerns net approval.
"
More on the slush-fund settlement and audit-immunity amendment.
https://www.politico.com/news/2026/05/20/tax-world-gawks-at-trump-audit-agreement-never-seen-anything-like-this-00929576
The leak under tRump and the prosecution of the leaker under Biden - resulting in a 5-year prison sentence, mind you. How this results in a fund to compensate people prosecuted under Biden is a logical mystery. Biden prosecuted the guy who harmed tRump so tRump gets to hand out money to people Biden prosecuted.
"
"just the slush fund" /= "just a slush fund"
"
Sure, but the slush fund was already known, at least to me, before the tax-audit immunity. So, bad as it was with just the slush fund, it's even worse when you add the tax-audit immunity on top of it.
On “What’s wrong with liberalism?”
Now that others have weighed in on their experience with the artists they know, I'd note that wj took "solidly middle class" as some kind of tell. What I meant was that my artist friends are far from "elite." They live in modest homes in small towns - old small towns with old modest homes. Cool older homes because they made them that way with their talents, but homes that aren't close to selling for seven figures.
So artists? - yes. Coastal? - yes. Cosmopolitan? - well, close to a large city, but in a small town, so whatever that means to you. Educated - varies, but few, if any, advanced degrees from private schools. Monied - no, unless being somewhere in the middle of middle class, which is what I meant by "solidly middle class," is a marker of being elite.
Some have other jobs (or spouses with regular jobs). One friend's other job is teaching kids art at an art school. He used to teach at a Montessori school before that. And other things before that. Another friend dog sits, as she did for us when we went on a vacation a couple years ago. She likes to paint dog portraits, among other things.
These are my liberals.
"
wj knows my friends better than I do. It's kind of weird. Or maybe I'm just stupid and have no idea how anything works.
"
Many of my more liberal friends are solidly middle-class hippy-ish artists. I wouldn't even go so far as "sufficiently financially secure as to not be especially risk-averse."
On “Open Thread time”
https://www.theguardian.com/us-news/2026/may/19/trump-irs-settlement-tax-returns
I'm not sure the "forever" authority exists, but either way ... wow. It was bad enough already and now this.
*Comment archive for non-registered commenters assembled by email address as provided.