Best Of

Does anyone here take the Ground News service?

What do you think?

AFAICS it is driven via social media sponsorships, but on reputable channels with reputations to lose if they just ut out blind propaganda.

Don’t even know what it is.

It’s an AI bot (presumably) that reads all the newspapers and new media outlets, and gives a summary of how the same story is being covered by different sources, giving a ‘lean’ left or right for each source.

It’s the same as a human reading for example a story about small boats in the Channel in both the Express and the Guardian, saying how the outlets cover the same thing with a different slant.

Have seen the demo of it, but not a subscriber. It does on the face of it seem useful especially for online, New Media, sources.

According to the wiki summary, it uses NLP processing - which I guess qualifies as a version of AI in these times. They are Canada-based.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Ground_News

I think Trump's dire performance as President is in danger of making us forget what a dismal candidate Harris was. She never seemed to say why she wanted to be President, had no original or inspiring ideas and, when given the chance to put her point across, actively fled from the media.

As I've said before, Democrats win when they have a charismatic bullshitter who inspires the young and the left without terrifying the centre and the middle-aged then lets them down in office - see Kennedy, Clinton, Obama. Trump may be so unpopular by 2028 that even Harris will win, or maybe she will be able to fake enough charisma, but the Democrats would be unwise to bank on that.

For all their faults Kennedy, Clinton, & Obama were three of the most outstanding political leaders of my lifetime. The only potential candidate coming anywhere near now is Buttigieg.

What do you think?

The nominee Polymarket, with $300m+ traded so far, is very weird.

https://polymarket.com/event/democratic-presidential-nominee-2028

The two favourites are Newsom and AOC, and I don’t see how either of them get there. Middle America isn’t voting for a very coastal liberal.

Gretchen Whitmer at 50/1 could be a good outsider, and they’ll want to keep at least one woman in the race for as long as possible. Josh Shapiro is probably underpriced at 20/1, as is Andy Beshear at 33/1.

Middle America doesn't come into it. This is the nominee market.

I do wonder if the Dem primary voters will even try and take into account the suitability of the candidates to beat a Republican (likely one of Rubio or Vance or DeSantis), or if they go for the most woke coastal ideologue that makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside?

Should not be hard to beat that trio of absolute donkeys

Christ, that Jane Austen style shipping forecast on R4 is total cringe. If they didn’t cobble it together using AI they made every effort to make it sound as if they did.

I find it impentrable but restful. It's good if some things don't change!

It's a weird yet comforting incantation to wake up to.

Moderate to good.

i used to listen before I went to sleep, after Sailing By.

Sailing By always makes me feel immensely melancholy for some reason.

It is redolent of a quieter, safer, more innocent time that maybe never existed, but regardless is a world away from the reality of life today.

Yes, also I think that as the majority of people would have only likely heard it whilst awake in the dark of the night it’s not associated with, for example, sunny days on the beach.

I used to like it when cricket commentary would break off for it. Quite apart from the poetry of it, a reminder that what your attention on was only a game.

And like others, I enjoy listening to it late at night, in bed - a moment to reflect on your fortunes at being 30 miles inland and not in colossal seas in South East Iceland.

Does anyone here take the Ground News service?

What do you think?

AFAICS it is driven via social media sponsorships, but on reputable channels with reputations to lose if they just ut out blind propaganda.

Don’t even know what it is.

It’s an AI bot (presumably) that reads all the newspapers and new media outlets, and gives a summary of how the same story is being covered by different sources, giving a ‘lean’ left or right for each source.

It’s the same as a human reading for example a story about small boats in the Channel in both the Express and the Guardian, saying how the outlets cover the same thing with a different slant.

Have seen the demo of it, but not a subscriber. It does on the face of it seem useful especially for online, New Media, sources.

Harris lost the popular vote by a mere 1.5%. She got a higher share of the popular vote than Trump did in 2016, than Dubya did in 2000, or than Bill Clinton did in 1992.

That’s copium on a par with ‘Corbyn got a higher popular vote than Starmer’

It doesn’t change the fact she lost and that she was a poor candidate.

I suggest it is evidence that she was not as poor a candidate as some believe.

She was a far superior candidate to Trump. As would almost anyone have beenn.

What seems odd to me is that a candidate from the left has to be both moderate and personally perfect in every way to stand a chance of winning, yet a candidate from the right can be any raving lunatic with no principles whatsoever and that's perfectly fine. And I say that as a centrist with no axe to grind for either side.

I think the winner of the 2024 was the not the current leader as I feel worse off now than I did in 2020.

It's the economy stupid can explain an awful lot of election results..

Christ, that Jane Austen style shipping forecast on R4 is total cringe. If they didn’t cobble it together using AI they made every effort to make it sound as if they did.

I find it impentrable but restful. It's good if some things don't change!

It's a weird yet comforting incantation to wake up to.

Moderate to good.

i used to listen before I went to sleep, after Sailing By.

Sailing By always makes me feel immensely melancholy for some reason.

It is redolent of a quieter, safer, more innocent time that maybe never existed, but regardless is a world away from the reality of life today.

I think Trump's dire performance as President is in danger of making us forget what a dismal candidate Harris was. She never seemed to say why she wanted to be President, had no original or inspiring ideas and, when given the chance to put her point across, actively fled from the media.

As I've said before, Democrats win when they have a charismatic bullshitter who inspires the young and the left without terrifying the centre and the middle-aged then lets them down in office - see Kennedy, Clinton, Obama. Trump may be so unpopular by 2028 that even Harris will win, or maybe she will be able to fake enough charisma, but the Democrats would be unwise to bank on that.

For all their faults Kennedy, Clinton, & Obama were three of the most outstanding political leaders of my lifetime. The only potential candidate coming anywhere near now is Buttigieg.

What do you think?

The nominee Polymarket, with $300m+ traded so far, is very weird.

https://polymarket.com/event/democratic-presidential-nominee-2028

The two favourites are Newsom and AOC, and I don’t see how either of them get there. Middle America isn’t voting for a very coastal liberal.

Gretchen Whitmer at 50/1 could be a good outsider, and they’ll want to keep at least one woman in the race for as long as possible. Josh Shapiro is probably underpriced at 20/1, as is Andy Beshear at 33/1.

Middle America doesn't come into it. This is the nominee market.

I do wonder if the Dem primary voters will even try and take into account the suitability of the candidates to beat a Republican (likely one of Rubio or Vance or DeSantis), or if they go for the most woke coastal ideologue that makes them feel warm and fuzzy inside?

The fact New Hampshire and South Carolina are the first two states to vote in the Democratic primaries isn't great for a woke coastal nominee.

Harris remember only got the nomination as she was VP, she won no primaries in 2020

I think Trump's dire performance as President is in danger of making us forget what a dismal candidate Harris was. She never seemed to say why she wanted to be President, had no original or inspiring ideas and, when given the chance to put her point across, actively fled from the media.

As I've said before, Democrats win when they have a charismatic bullshitter who inspires the young and the left without terrifying the centre and the middle-aged then lets them down in office - see Kennedy, Clinton, Obama. Trump may be so unpopular by 2028 that even Harris will win, or maybe she will be able to fake enough charisma, but the Democrats would be unwise to bank on that.

For all their faults Kennedy, Clinton, & Obama were three of the most outstanding political leaders of my lifetime. The only potential candidate coming anywhere near now is Buttigieg.

What do you think?

Sadly, I just can't see how Buttigieg gets through the primaries in the South.

Buttigieg needs to first explain why he repeatedly lied about Biden's fitness for office.

He can then explain what he achieved himself as transport secretary for four years.

You'll be going on about Hunter Biden next.
None of that is in the slightest bit relevant to Democratic primaries in three years time.

Assuming the US still has a democracy (not 100% guaranteed), the record of the current administration will be uppermost in voters minds, and whoever has the best shot at uniting the Democrats is likely to get the nomination.

I doubt that will be Harris, and on current form, it might just be Newsom. He's not exactly adored by the Democratic base, but he's getting traction for leading the opposition to Trump. Quite what he does after leaving the governor's office at the end of 2026 is an interesting question.

After four years of Trump, the Democrats need to find a unifying candidate. Harris isn’t that person.