This Tuesday report will provide some insights into life for a westerner (me) who is working for an extended period at Kyoto University in Japan. 秋まつり – Sunday, November 3, 2024 The ‘event’ highlight of the week just gone was the – Aki Matsuri – or 秋まつり (Autumn Festival) last Sunday at the Buddhist –…
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This from Dan Pfeiffer: Looking at the fundamentals, we shouldn’t even be in this race. This is a brutal political environment. Three-quarters of Americans think the country is on the wrong track. Two-thirds are unhappy about the economy. The incumbent President ran for reelection despite huge misgivings about his age and then had a debate so disastrous that he had to drop out only a few months before the election. Nate Cohn summed up the challenges in the New York Times: For the first time in decades, Republicans have pulled even or ahead in nationwide party identification. Polls also find Republicans with an edge on most key issues — with democracy and abortion standing as significant exceptions. The Democrats’ challenge appears to be part of a broader trend of political struggles for ruling parties across the developed world. Voters appear eager for change when they get the chance. The ruling parties in Britain, Germany, Italy, Australia and most recently Japan all faced electoral setbacks or lost power. Mr. Trump himself lost four years ago. France and Canada might well join the list. Trump should be running away with it.
Stuart Stevens tweeted this about the Trump campaign. It’s so, so true: Watching the Harris campaign vs. Trump, it’s striking how much of a higher level the Harris campaign is operating. It’s NFL vs. Division 2 college, at best. Why? Part of it, of course, comes from Trump, who has made a mess of every organization he has ever controlled. But there’s another factor: Democrats have developed a much deeper bench of skilled political operatives. In 1999, the Bush campaign assembled the best Republican political talent in Austin. In the 2000 campaign, the Bush campaign performed at a significantly higher level than the Gore campaign, which was sort of a mess, moving HQ from DC to Nashville, etc. Cut to 2016. Most top level operatives did not want anything to do with the Trump campaign. It assembled a collection of second and third-stringers, weirdos, all the sort of people who had been trying to work at the presidential level, but nobody would let them in. Yes, Trump won, but it’s hard to say that his campaign performed at a higher level.
Back in 2022 almost everyone expected the midterms to go Republican. They didn’t.
The Supremes won it for Democrats, because women were furious about the over-turning of Roe v.s. Wade.
Harris is a terrible candidate, but the Supremes seem likely to win it for her, too.
So, right-leaning pollsters dropped a whole bunch of new polls showing Trump doing well today. There’s no reason for it except to gin up the expectations among the Trump cult so that if he loses they can … do what? Write amicus briefs? Stand outside courtrooms holding signs? I don’t think so. Here’s a little preview of what they may be planning: Brandon Matlack, a coordinator for a group boosting former president Donald Trump’s election effort, was camped outside an election office in Pennsylvania’s Northampton County when he posted a video Tuesday on the social network X asking his 3,000 followers for help identifying a “very suspect” man he’d seen just drop off “an insane amount of ballots.” Within minutes, his video had gone viral — cross-posted to Facebook groups, Rumble videos, Telegram channels and pro-Trump forums as visual evidence of election fraud. On X, the video raced to the top of a special “Election Integrity” feed newly promoted by its billionaire owner Elon Musk, where posts sharing the man’s face and license plate were viewed millions of times.
The prize committee is pleased to announce that Elliot Dolan-Evans’ article, titled ‘Pipes, profits and peace: toward a feminist political economy of gas during war’, published in the Review of International Political Economy, has won the 2024 Australian International Political Economy Network (AIPEN) Richard Higgott Journal Article Prize.
The committee awarded the prize to this article for its exploration of urgent questions surrounding the reform of international financial institutions during conflict, energy provisioning, and its impact on women and households.
The article provides a pathway for integrating feminist political economy with energy security studies, and in doing so offers an important and valuable contribution to IPE. Building on existing theories and research, the article presents a novel perspective, supported by new empirical details from the case of gas reform in Ukraine and its adverse effects on women and households during wartime.
In the battleground state of Georgia, Democrats’ decision to disregard the will of 116,000 voters could have major consequences.
The post Atlanta Democrats Blocked the Cop City Referendum — and Alienated a Voter Turnout Operation appeared first on The Intercept.
Here’s the 1986 cover story of Spy Magazine’s first issue: “The 10 Most Embarrassing New Yorkers.” He hasn’t changed a bit in 40 years. * Note that they said way back when that he had the Times in his back pocket…
Once lost in scientific obscurity, bacteriophage therapy is making a comeback.
The post Medicine Is Going Viral appeared first on Nautilus.
On Monday afternoon, the Georgia Supreme Court issued a ruling that’s likely to disenfranchise thousands...
The world’s richest man and top Trump supporter profits off the U.S. security state while back-channeling with Putin.
The post Elon Musk Is His Own Rogue Nation appeared first on The Intercept.
IRISH MEATBALLS 1 pound ground beef½ cup instant mashed potatoes¼ cup Irish whiskey1 medium onion, finely chopped1 teaspoon thyme1 teaspoon oregano½ cup milk1 egg1 teaspoon dry mustard1 teaspoon salt½ teaspoon pepper¼ cup finely chopped parsley1 package (3-oz size) chive-flavored cream cheese Mix all ingredients except cream cheese together; refrigerate, covered, 1 hour; preheat oven to […]