State of the Discussion

The posts in play...

The Wiles Interview
(25)
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Author, author?
(38)
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Weekend music thread #08 How do you get to Carnagie Hall?
(24)
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The comments...

Tony P.
+ What this country needs is an antiTrump. That means a Democrat who is as big and boisterous an asshole as He, Trump (for "electability") [. . .]
nous
+ wj - The challenge will be for such a person to get thru the primaries. Those tend to have a far higher concentration of, for [. . .]
GftNC
+ Part 2 Predictably, the reliably unreliable Trump has already pulled the plug on the pathetically optimistic Starmer’s elephant-trumpeted $40bn Tech Prosperity Deal, as part of his [. . .]
GftNC
+ This is Steward Lee's latest, on Trump's war against the media, and in this case the BBC. There are various links throughout it, so [. . .]
GftNC
+ Obvs I can't vote, but I agree with both cleek and wonkie. First and foremost, the Dems need someone who is young-ish, charismatic, and a good [. . .]
`wonkie
+ I'm with Cleek. I don't vote on policy except in the very broad sense that Democrats try to devise policies to solve problems and Republicans [. . .]
+ i guess what i'm saying is: right now, anyway, i don't care about policy details; i don't care about ideological purity; i don't care about [. . .]
wjca
+  the person who can win for the Dems The challenge will be for such a person to get thru the primaries. Those tend [. . .]
+ IMO, the person the Dems need is the one who grabs the attention of that huge mass of people whose political outlooks are completely alien [. . .]
+ Everyone says they vote for whoever they think is “better on the issues” but how many people have any idea what policies a candidate is [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ Newsome's appearance on Ezra Klein's podcast was enlightening. https://youtu.be/PqBsRNUXWfs?si=EwDOTfV4F7dttjQM I didn't enjoy it, but I can see he is pulling all the levers to be the [. . .]
nous
+ wj - I'd never call Newsom a progressive, but I agree that any reasonable CA pol would be read as a loony leftie by default [. . .]
`wonkie
+ The labels annoy me too because there is no shared meaning. They mean whatever someone wants them to mean--largely unattached to policy responses to issues. [. . .]
wjca
+ They need a fascist who seems nice. Kinda sounds like Vance has been cast for that position. He probably wouldn't have won if [. . .]
nous
+ Not a complaint about you or your posting that, wonkie, but I hate polls like the one that Emerson College put together because I don't [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ A number of people have reported that the real reason Trump is dismantling NCAR is to punish Colorado's governor for not releasing Tina Peters from [. . .]
russell

They're looking for Charlie Baker.

I don't think he's interested in the gig.

`wonkie
+ The problem with the survey results that I posted is that, as far as I can see, there are no moderate Republicans--in terms of policy. [. . .]
`wonkie
+ The survey, which was conducted between December 14 and 15 and measured public opinion based upon the answers provided by 1,000 registered voters, found that if [. . .]
`wonkie
+ HIs aides seem to think that MORE exposure of Trump being Trump will help him, but I don't think his performance on prime time went [. . .]
nous
+ As an undergrad in Boulder, I used to make a trip to NCAR a handful of times a semester to collect signatures for grants for [. . .]
Tony P.
+ “This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism in the country.” Michael's citation of this MAGAt justification for closing NCAR reminds me of [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ possibly apropos, from LGM which links to this CNN article Other presidents receive similarly politicized descriptions, such as former President Barack Obama. “Barack Hussein Obama was the [. . .]
Tony P.
+ Is He, Trump the world's most efficient thumb typist? I have always assumed that, whatever else may be true, He does not produce his [. . .]
Liberal Japonicus
+ re: marching band as being for girls Both marching and school band, when transported to Japan, became something that women could excel at. Instrumental stereotypes run [. . .]
russell
+ Just read about Trump adding commemorative plaques to the set of photos of previous POTUS' in the White House. And for "commemorative", please read rude and [. . .]
GftNC
+ Damn. I posted another link from the Atlantic (see Wiles thread) about the Trump Reiner quotes, but unbeknown to me the extract I also [. . .]
GftNC
+ Unfortunately, I no longer have a sub to Vanity Fair. But this is Jonathan Chait in the Atlantic on the subject. Here is [. . .]
nous
+ I know that the age difference between these musicians and Drum Corps International (22 max age) is vast, but the marching band show had me [. . .]
+ at least some of the GOP are not happy with Trump's Reiner reaction. Donald Trump, Stark Raving ManiacThe president of the United States is [. . .]
bc
+ I don't know re authorship. I do know there really isn't an antidote to such a terrible comment. James Woods' heartfelt tribute to [. . .]
Michael Cain
+ The administration announced they will be dismantling the National Center for Atmospheric Research because "This facility is one of the largest sources of climate alarmism [. . .]
+ i've always assumed he writes his own social media junk. i doubt anyone else could really understand what's going on in his head and so [. . .]
CharlesWT

A tidbit: Michele Reiner photographed Trump for the cover of The Art of the Deal.

russell
+ Trump has takento referring to himself in the third person, so the usage here doesn't indicate whether he wrote it or not. TBH I'm not sure [. . .]
CharlesWT
+ The grammar checker is good at catching most errors. It did suggest that "An unfortunate" should replace "A very sad". But that's a style choice. But [. . .]
wjca
+ I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren’t dumb enough [. . .]
GftNC

Charles, I think you need a better grammar checker!

Michael Cain
+ Hegseth has proposed a plan to significantly reduce the number of four-star generals. The proposal appears to be consistent with the recently released National [. . .]
nous
+ CharlesWT - there's AI content, and there's AI generated autofill suggestions. He would not use the forer out of pride, but the latter is a [. . .]
`wonkie
+ Previously to this discussion, I assumed that Trump's posts were all his and expressed who he is. I wondered why some staffer person wasn't assigned [. . .]
CharlesWT
+ Gemini says that there's no explicit evidence of AI being used in the past two weeks of Trump's Truth Social postings. "Based on an analysis of [. . .]
CharlesWT
+ "A very sad thing happened last night in Hollywood. Rob Reiner, a tortured and struggling, but once very talented movie director and comedy star, has [. . .]
GftNC
+ I pretty much agree with nous, and did so as soon as I read lj's post. Referring to himself in the third person in [. . .]
nous
+ I would not discount He Who Slumbers as the "author" of those based on the language and the weird syntax. There's often a disconnect between [. . .]
`wonkie
+ I guess I have been assuming that he wrote his own posts on the assumption that even his core supporters in his top admin aren't [. . .]